No Scrap Goes To Waste

Recycling clay is a a never ending drudgery. A busy work task that a potter is far too familiar with. Day after the day the mound of brown crusty trimmings and unworthy pieces are collected to be reused later. The recycling clay process consisting of rehydrating dry clay and then dehydrating it until reaches the state of perfect workability.

In my studio I am constantly doing some stage of this process. Just when I think I’m done, there it is again, the clay tower growing with aspirations to be the highest in all the studio’s existence. Staring me in the face, It is the first thing I see when I walk into my studio…and the last. Tomorrow I know it will be there again waiting for me to recognize its invasion.

Everyday we are met with dry, crunchy scraps of life that grow so large we start to become a part of them, and even start to identify as such. Scraps of broken relationships, shattered dreams, failed business ideas, and fractured family life accumulate faster than we can deal with them. No matter how hard we try to dissolve this reality, it seems to hit a growth spurt overnight and now it’s a tower not even David could scale. Speaking of David, he seems to be kind of an expert on this subject when he said in Psalms 69:1-3, “Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary with my crying; my throat is dry; my eyes fail while I wait for my God.” If this isn’t the most relatable thing I don’t know what is. David knew what it was like to be in the “deep mire”, however; he also knew what it was like for God to pull him out. Psalms 40:1-3 says, “I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined to me, and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth- Praise to our God; many will see it and fear, and will trust in the Lord.” David literally says he is in a horrible pit of miry CLAY. Just like you, and just like me. 

So at what point do we get to bring our own 5-gallon bucket or buckets of scraps to God for Him to turn it into something usable? Clay must be a certain consistency for potters to work with. If there’s too much moisture in the clay the pot will melt as it’s being formed. On the contrary, If there’s not enough moisture, the clay can’t be used at all and needs to be recycled all over again. The good thing for us, is we don’t have to know where we are in this process because God does. He knows when we’re ready to be formed. The exact second between to wet and too dry, God takes the mound of messy life failures, wedges it out, places it on the wheel, and completes the work He started. This life is a cycle of bringing our broken scraps that we label as waste to a potter who knows exactly how to use them. As clay cannot mold itself, we cannot expect to shape our lives into something worthy. Reality is, we live among the scraps daily searching for a way to make things work. We try to fix these things but that is only medicine for the symptoms and not a cure for the disease. No matter how hard we try, it won’t work until we allow the potter’s hand to work. All you have to do is bring your scraps to God and trust he knows what to do with them. The Potter knows, it’s what he specializes in. He will see that no clay, no part of your brokenness or pain will go to waste.