Labor Day

Labor Day is a federal holiday, set aside to honor the American worker. That's nice. But that's not what I remember it for. 26 years ago today 12-year old Cora Jones went for a bike ride and never came home.

26 years is a long time. The hurting subsides a bit but it's still there.

I remember walking through corn fields with hundreds of others as we searched for anything in hopes of finding her. I remember the ladies at the Parferyville Methodist Church with their Nescos, making food for all of the volunteers.

But the thing I remember most about that hopeless day was riding my bike on the road near our house, still looking, still hoping, but then stopping to yelling at God like it was all His fault.

I am reminded of Joseph. His siblings all hated him so they sold him into slavery in Egypt. That sounds bad on the surface but ultimately Joseph became the second most powerful man in Egypt and saved his brothers despite what they had done.
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"But as for you, you meant evil against me (Joseph); but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive." - Genesis 50:20

Years later, after becoming a born-again believer in Jesus, I remember reading a book that suggested the biggest hurt in my heart would become my best ministry. What was the source of my biggest pain? Cora's death.

Cora loved Jesus. What better way to honor her, I thought, than by becoming a youth leader at the very church that Cora attended. So I did. And what a blessing that was!

God had taken the pain in my heart and replaced it with joy. That's what God does. He heals the brokenhearted. He takes away the pain and offers love and peace in its place.

So, today I remember Cora. Yes. But mostly I remember God and His endless supply of grace and mercy. He took this man's damaged heart and not only healed it but enlarged it.

He can do the same for you if you let Him. Ask God to heal your heart today.

Pots

Have you ever watched one of those pot makers? You know, with the spinning wheel and the big blob of clay? They spin it and shape it and form it into the image of what they have in their mind. They knew ahead of time what they wanted to make. Maybe it was a plate or a cup or a bowl. They thought of it . . . and then they set about making it. That's cool.

The whole process is kind of messy though. First they take some clay, which is really mud and then they get their hands all wet and make the mud slippery and slimy. Then they SPLAT it on the wheel and begin to create. Man, if I tried to do that, I'd be wearing most of MY creation. I'd be a mess!!

"Throwing a pot" is basically what God does with us. Most of us are big, figurative lumps of clay when God starts working on us - some lumpier than others. For some of us our clay is fresh and new. For others, like me, our clay might be a little on the moldy side and more difficult to work with. Yet, in the hands of a skilled craftsman like our God, the clay, no matter what condition it is in, no matter what age, he can make us useful.

As our clay dries, or figuratively gets glazed in God's furnace, we become stronger than we ever were before. The "fire" we experience in that furnace, life, teaches us things. Trials hone us and sharpen us and over time we become polished and smoothed by God’s loving hands. He patches our cracks when we get damaged, and we ALL will get broken in some way. Sometimes, when the cracks are not too severe, God leaves them because they add character to His creation. He repairs the broken and He keeps us useful no matter what we look like or how many times we’ve been repaired.

Now, before you go calling me an old crack pot, let me tell you something. You're exactly right. My "pot" IS cracked. It got a great big crack in it back in 1994 when a young girl in our community was abducted and murdered. That event, that painful "crack" in my heart, was used by God to create character in this old "cracked pot." But I have been and repaired, restored to working order by Jesus Christ, He now uses me to pour out water, but it is water of a different kind. God took the love that was lost on that fateful day in 1994, restored me and filled me up again so He could pour out His love, through me, to others. Where pain had worked its way into my heart, God used that experience to create an opportunity for joy . . . bringing glory to Himself in the process. That's how awesome God is. He uses the weak and the broken, the lowly and the outcast, to spread His love and word to others.

How has God molded and formed you? What is YOUR "vessel" being used for? How can God use you to accomplish His will here on earth? These are all good questions. Sometimes it seems as if the questions are too many and the answers are too few, but the important thing is, are we willing to be shaped by God's mighty hands into whatever size and type of vessel He desires? The answer MUST be yes. It HAS to be yes. Otherwise, Jesus is not the Lord of our lives. And instead of being used for His purposes, we run the risk of being discarded, thrown in a pile with other broken pieces of pottery.

The potter's hands are always at work. The next time we experience a struggle or some pain in our lives, we SHOULD rejoice. Each of us are being transformed into vessels that will be used by God. And what an honor it is to be used by him.

"But now, O Lord, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand." - Isaiah 64:8

Watch a potter in action here: Potter

Visit this web site and get to know the young girl whose death God used as a means to mold me into the vessel of His choosing - a youth leader: Remembering Cora