Filled and used by the Master Potter

In January, when John and I were in Seagrove, the first pottery we went to was called "His Hands Pottery". I suspected, when I first heard about the place, that it was a reference to God as the Master Potter and shaper of our lives (that was part of the reason I wanted to go there). When we got there, we learned that the reference was, indeed, to the Lord. I bought a beautiful Rebekah pitcher there, and then John sent me out to sit on the porch while he did some "secret" work. As I sat on the porch, a worship song called "The Potter's Hand" came to mind, and I sang it to myself while enjoying the rocking chair and the lovely view. A couple of weeks ago, a box arrived from His Hands. It contained a beautiful new angel for my collection, with long curly hair like mine. She is holding a red heart, and John gave her to me for Valentine's Day.

About two weeks ago, a lady named Elizabeth whom I know from church called and asked me if I wanted to participate in the service on Feb. 25th, which would be planned, led and run completely by the women of the congregation. I said sure, and offered to sing. Immediately after hanging up, I thought "have you lost your mind?" and started getting nervous about what I had just volunteered to do. Sing a solo? What was I thinking?

There was a particular song I wanted to perform, one of my favorites by Chonda Pierce called "God Loves You". I had purchased the backup track for this song several years ago. Unfortunately, it was only available on cassette. The tape had spent months in my car. When I pulled it out and played it, I discovered what the impact of that time had been - it was wrecked and sounded terrible! Mostly, I could hear the tape machine beginning to "eat" it. Uh-oh. So now what?

I spent a while searching on the internet, and found downloadable backup tracks. Unfortunately, that song was not among them. I did find several other songs I knew, though, purchased them and burned them to CD. I planned to sing a song called "The Heart of Worship", because every time I began to feel nervous about singing, I felt God saying "this is not about YOU". That song talks about "coming back to the heart of worship, and it's all about you, Jesus", so it seemed the perfect fit for what I was hearing from God. I practiced it several times. And then I practiced another song I had downloaded, also one I had heard performed by Chonda Pierce, called "The Potter's Hand" (you see, these stories ARE connected!)

On Saturday afternoon, I went to the church to practice. I sang both songs, and Ivey (the church worship leader) said he thought I should do "The Potter's Hand". Frankly, I think that's because I sang it better, having gotten the nerves worked out while singing "Heart of Worship". But, as I learned this morning, God was using Ivey to tell me what He needed me to hear.

So, this morning, I arrived at church, still nervous, still hearing God say "but it's not about YOU", and basically ready to sing. Then, as is always the way with God, things started to fall into place. There was a skit performed right before I sang, and it taught that we must allow the Holy Spirit to lead us in our lives, specifically in showing the truth of God to others. I felt that was a good fit with the song, which says "take me, mold me, use me, fill me, I give myself to the Potter's hand; call me, guide me, lead me, walk beside me, I give myself to the Potter's hand".

So I sang my song. About three-quarters of the way through the song, there is a quiet part. When I first started practicing with the track, I thought "what the heck am I going to do with this?" I practiced just humming softly through that section. But today, while I was singing the song, I got the answer to what to do with that portion of the song. God gave me the words, and I said something to the effect of "as the ladies showed us in their skit, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us; the way to do that is to ask Him to fill us; this week, when I was practicing, God told me this is not about me; it's not a performance, it's worship of Him; so join me in worshiping and asking the Holy Spirit to fill and use you". Several ladies did join in, singing the final chorus with me. I hope it was a blessing to them, as it was to me.

Also, while singing I noticed one lady who was crying. It was incredibly humbling to realize that, through all my stumbling, nervousness, and trying to decide which song to sing, God had still used me to touch someone's heart. That song was what she needed to hear this morning, and the fact that God blessed her through me was an incredible priviledge.

When Ann gave the message for the morning, one of the verses she read was "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us" (2 Cor. 4:7). That really summed it up for me. We are vessels, made by the hands of the Master Potter to show His power, because it is NOT ABOUT US.