The Potter’s Hand
In high school art class, one term we learned pottery. I can remember the teacher demonstrating how to use the pottery wheel. He was the type to wax on and on about this and that and never get to the point. And it seemed that was what he was doing with the clay.
He had smacked a lump of clay onto the wheel and was demonstrating how to centre the clay. He did it over and over again and it just looked like keeping your hands still. He stressed the importance of having centred clay before moving on. It looked boring and like a waste of time.
Then we were expected to do it ourselves at our own wheels. Centring the clay wasn’t as simple as it looked. It took a lot of concentration and a firm touch. When I didn’t get it right and the clay slid off I had to start again with a new lump of clay. It took a lot of practice and lumps of clay to get it
right.
I have learned a new skill in the past few months. I call it “centring.” It is the practice of silence and solitude and focussing on being with God. It looks like “doing nothing” from the outside. And even boring and a waste of time. But strangely enough, “doing nothing” except focussing on being with God did not come naturally to me. Just like the pottery on a wheel, centring the mind takes a lot of concentration and practice.
Just as when an un-centred lump of clay will result in all sorts of pot-throwing disasters, an un-centred life can result in a host of problems from anxiety to apathy. It can drive your life like the money-hungry Zacchaeus or the over-bearing Zealot with a cause.
And so I practice centring on God. Moving aside the other distractions from my mind and deliberately focussing on being with Him, seeing His face, feeling His touch, hearing His words.
Sometimes I focus on a verse. Sometimes a scene from a Bible story. I see His hand at work. I hear His words. Sometimes just the knowledge that He is there with me is enough.
It’s easy to be distracted. It’s easy to beat myself up about it. But then I remember, if I am distracted a thousand times, I can turn my mind toward Jesus a thousand and one times. I started with a couple of minutes and it felt like eternity. Now I never want it to end.
It’s not about doing. It’s about being. It reminds me that God made me because He wanted to be with me. That no matter how much I do or don’t do, God made me and I am enough.
May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.Ps 19:14
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Is 26:3
