When you don’t know what to do – do the dishes. A friend shared that wisdom with me a decade ago and you will rarely find dishes in my sink. I had a new contact today from a missions group serving in a difficult US city. Every idea of service excites me because I know, at this life’s stage, I am not a first pick. I pray daily that I will be in the right place. How does one know the right place? In the Book of Jeremiah, God instructed him to go to the potter’s house. God promises He will give him His message. Jeremiah says, in the section, Chapter 18:1-11, “So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.” This word follows dialogue concerning Judah who has forgotten God. The word says that they, “bend their tongue like a bow”. There is so much to extract from this passage but all I am going to say is that when God said, then Jeremiah knew. He knew where to go and he did not pull a Jonah (who ran in the opposite direction) but, it reads that, Jeremiah went straight away.
I want to be like Jeremiah. When I know what I know then I will go. That is how my YWAM trip was formed. I did dishes for so long. I was not finding open doors and then this service opportunity swung wide open. I have no regrets. Pray, talk with your missions people, and with those who love you. Be faithful in what is before you each day, then when the call comes, go to the potters house at God’s direction. I don’t want it to feel good but I want it to feel right about it. Know that we are all like the potter’s clay and should strive to be subtle and malleable, even if the clay is a bit drier than it used to be.
