Day 39 - Fishy business
Scripture focus: Then the word of the Lord came to me: "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the Lord. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel." Jeremiah 18:5-6
Yesterday I had a codependent moment and cleaned my son's fish bowl. I added water and fed the hungry fish. Unfortunately, I added too much water and unwittingly participated in a fish-break. Close to the top of the bowl, our intrepid fishy saw his big break opportunity - and took it. Thereby exiting his bowl in a precipitous fashion - and yes, you've got it! - plunging to his death. This is a sad state of affairs and I regret my part in it. If only I hadn't added a bit too much water.
It's a comfort to know that we're in the potter's hand. But we must be careful to consider all the implications of this statement. According to Kim Engelmann in her book, Running In Circles, "Spiritual language can be used to help us deny that a problem exists." (p.46)
Say, for example, a time of suffering occurs in a family. Perhaps someone has become deeply depressed, or a secret addiction has been unwittingly uncovered. Spiritual people could say, "Hey, I'm the clay, God's the potter, I'm just trusting God with this situation." That's a great point. But what if this becomes a way to use spiritual language - without allowing God to have his way with us. This would be more in keeping with cyclical suffering, or as Engelmann says - hamster wheel suffering.
"The wrong kind of spiritual language can keep us stuck in the hamster wheel a long time. It can produce feelings of guilt, obligation and shame that distort the image of God. We can use it to protect ourselves when we don't want to get in touch with our pain. Sometimes we don't know what to do, so instead of being honest, we resort to lingo that is safe and familiar." (p.46)
Here's the deal. If God is the potter, and we are the clay then we have an obligation to get with God's program. God is the creator of life and beauty and goodness. God's in the business of redemption, transformation and restoration. Big sighs of cyclical suffering and self-pity accompanied by huge doses of inappropriate martyrdom and blaming others is not in keeping with who God is. Cyclical suffering is not God's will. So when faced with any and all circumstances - including suffering - we must be about the business of God - actively participating in his creative, powerful, healing, redemptive, transformational, restorative process.
Our fish thought he was getting a big break escaping his bowl - and it led to his untimely demise. I suppose as he was headed to his own personal finish line he could have called out, "What did that lady do to me? I'm just a poor innocent fish, doing what fish do. This isn't my fault!!"
I'm sorry I didn't get the water line quite right. And of course, that fish did what fish do. Sometimes we act like animals too. We do those things we do. We're marred. We do what comes natural. Then we cry when we find ourselves or those we love taking a big dive toward a potentially untimely demise.
And if that's all we do - bemoan our marred ways - then we're not suffering productively. Tomorrow we'll discuss one way we act foolishly - and contribute to needless suffering.
Recommended reading: Exodus 28 in the morning; Psalm 31 and Proverbs 8 in the evening
1 comment:
When I was growing up, I thought all spiritual people were "perfect" and that all they did was correct, whether it was good or bad. My mom was catholic, formerly pentecostal, so I thought all she did was the way people should act. Something on the inside told me that wasn't the case, though.
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