Placed on the Potter's
Wheel
Have you ever asked yourself, "Who do I really want to control my life?" Or maybe, "Why should I turn over control of my life to God?"
Strong-willed and determined people like myself know the answer: We must be in charge. We are not going to let anyone else run our lives, unless, of course, we run into a brick wall and discover we are at a potential dead end and need help.
Of course, not everyone is a high-control, goal-directed person. For many the issue of life-control never seems to become a personal crisis. They may be controlled by their parents, who may even determine their vocational goals. Others let friends exercise strong control over them because those friends seem so self-assured and goal-oriented themselves. Then there are those who let circumstances set the pace for their lives. Finally, the Bible says some are controlled by their passions and lusts.
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My Hand on My Life's Rudder
You'll remember I set sail on the sea of life with the rudder firmly in my control, despite having made a decision for Christ at ten years of age. No Master Potter for me. I knew what I wanted and was determined to get it, even after divorce, a son to care for, and a major economic depression that made getting a job extremely difficult. Under no circumstances did I think that God might actually have better plans for me than I did. I saw Him as the spoilsport, not a loving caring God who recognized my potential and was ready to use my talents.
Does that describe you? Surveys by people like George Barna and George Gallup reveal that there are actually more people than ever determined to be the masters of their fate. That is true even among Christians who, like I did, have attended church regularly for years.
God recognized this tendency in man thousands of years ago and spoke to the prophet Jeremiah about it some 500 years before the birth of Christ.
A Skilled Artisan
First God told Jeremiah to go to a potter's house. Working with clay, the potters made the pages for newspapers and formal records, mugs, lamp bases, pots, and storage containers of that day. They deftly turned lumps of clay into usable objects. Many pieces made in those days can be found in the ruins of ancient cities and help us to discover how the people in those cities lived. We've learned to read ancient languages because clay tablets filled with all kinds of business details and government actions survived fire, floods, and the destruction of war.
So the potter was a key artisan in ancient villages.
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He or she shaped what people wrote on; stored food, water, and wine in; and ate and drank from. Of course, not all potters were equally skilled, but all had a measure of control over the lump of clay in their hands.
With that as a backdrop, read what God told Jeremiah: "Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear My words" (Jer. 18:2).
So Jeremiah went to the village potter to see what he was making. Unfortunately, having an onlooker must have rattled the potter, for the object he was making did not turn out right. So he reworked the clay and shaped it into another vessel. Jeremiah uses a key phrase to describe that process: "So he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make" (Jer. 18:4).
That description sets the stage for God's words:
"O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter? says the LORD. "Look, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!" (Jer. 18:6)
Who's Really in Charge?
God then asks if it is not within His rights as a potter to relent, to hold back the punishment promised those who sin against Him when they turn from their ways. At the same time, He asserts it is within His rights to bring evil consequences on those involved in sinful actions. Despite the awesomeness of their Maker, Israel chooses to "walk according to our own plans, and we will every one obey the dictates of his evil heart" (Jer. 18:12).
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Because of that attitude, because of their unwillingness to be the people of God as He intended, the land of Israel would be destroyed and made desolate. He was going to scatter them before the enemy like an "east wind."
I did not understand this imagery, this description of His response to rebellion against Him, even though I read the Bible through after my first marriage failed. I did not interpret what happened to me as being in any way the result of my failure to let my life be shaped by the Master Potter.
More than twenty years of aggressively pursuing my own goals for my life had produced a measure of success as the world counts success. After all, I had been the star singer on a national radio program, and I had been the leading lady in numerous western films.
That was not the whole story, however. My broken marriages (see chapter 8) and inability to find personal happiness and joy revealed my bankruptcy of soul and spirit while pursuing my own goals. I had refused to give God control of my life, but I was also beginning to realize that I wasn't as smart or as competent as I thought I was. Maybe the Master Potter had a better idea after all!
Some of you may be saying, "What you're talking about sounds an awful lot like a dictatorship, as though God is some super despot who insists on always having His way. Surely I must have something to say about how I live my life!"
That's exactly how I felt when I was in my teens. I was smart enough to skip three grades, becoming a junior when I was fourteen. I wanted to be a writer, making my best marks in English composition and history. But I also wanted to be a dancer and to be in show business as a singer.
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My ego manifested itself very early. When I got hurt, instead of going to the Lord and saying, I want You to pick up the pieces, please, and put me back together again. Make me what You want me to be," I just straightened my back and said, "I will show You."
How different is the attitude expressed by Isaiah:
Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. (Isaiah 64:8)
But isn't the idea of God's demanding control over our lives an Old Testament concept? Didn't Jesus bring us a new freedom, a new relationship with God?
Yes, He did. Yet as strange as it may seem, the idea of our being clay and God's being the Master Potter shows up in New Testament writings as well. The apostle Paul made clear reference to it in his letter to the Romans:
But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?" Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? (Rom. 9:20-21)
A Humbling Experience
Recognizing the right of the Master Potter to shape our lives according to His design is a humbling experience.
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You have to be humble before God, know that He is God, and know that only He can make your life really count for His glory before you will be willing to accept His shaping. For Christians, it means accepting our weakness, our earthiness, our mistakes, and letting the Master Potter have His way, tough as it may sometimes seem.
I did not recognize single parenting as part of His shaping. Nor did I recognize that God was shaping Tom in a way that would prepare me to yield control to God. As far as I was concerned, my divorces were simply part of the normal tragedies of life — and not part of God's pursuit of me. Like many, I saw these experiences at best as dumb mistakes that I could correct the next time around.
The Benefits Are Real
Here's how the apostle Paul describes what submitting to the Master Potter did for him:
We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. (2 Cor. 4:8-10)
That's the strength, those are the resources that became available to me when I bowed my head and said to the Master Potter, "Whatever it takes, I am committed to Your will in my life for the rest of my life."
"But," you may say, "I'm a little puzzled about when the Master Potter actually gets involved with us.
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You've said that He really was able to put you on the Potter's wheel only after you bowed in total surrender to His will as a result of Dr. MacArthur's message and your son's prayers. But you also suggested the Master Potter was active in your life while you were still rebellious and determined to go it alone. Are you saying God is involved in shaping us long before we surrender to Him?"
Prepared for Leadership
Yes, I am convinced God is reaching out to us, allowing experiences that will help us develop into the kind of people He can use.
I think of how God prepared Joseph as a boy for his future role as second in command in Egypt during a time of famine. God had Joseph grow up in an agricultural setting, so he understood about abundant crops versus famine. He put him through the extremely negative experience of being sold as a slave so that he could experience God's presence in the worst of times.
God allowed Joseph to be thrown into prison for an alleged sexual advance so he could make the contact that would later lead to his high-ranking appointment. Joseph was on the wheel of the Master Potter all this time, but he really did not know it. Even if he saw some elements of it, he failed to grasp the full implications.
Roy and the Master Potter
God was similarly at work in Roy's life well before he accepted Christ, preparing him for his contributions as an entertainer, especially to children in hospitals and orphanages, and finally as a parent of adopted special children.
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No one thought of it as a benefit at the time, but the fact that Roy's mother was crippled played a major role in his life. He developed an empathy for those who are disabled and disadvantaged. As a result, he always had his advance man set up visits to crippled children's hospitals and orphanages when he toured in special appearances. He'd ride his horse Trigger right into the hospital and introduce him to the children. No, Trigger never made a mess on those visits — he was a very well-mannered and trained horse.
Even today, at eighty-two years of age, Roy stays in touch with several disabled children, communicating with them in a variety of ways — despite having sixteen grandchildren and twenty-seven great-grandchildren, with two more on the way.
Roy's home also prepared him musically. Roy says, "I never thought I would be a singing cowboy. I never expected to get into entertainment. Yet at home my three sisters played the mandolin and guitar, as did Mom and Dad when I was little. So I learned to play the guitar. And we'd have square dances and sing and have our own entertainment.
"In 1930 I left Ohio to go to California. The first job I got was picking peaches in Tulare County. When that was over I drove a little Model-T dump truck, hauling sand to a golf course in the Los Angeles area. The guy I was working for lost his trucks, so there went my job. My sister, with whom I was staying, said to me, 'Honey, they have an amateur show on the Englewood radio station every Saturday from midnight
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to six in the morning. I'll call them up and see if I can get you on it.'
"Being young and straight from the country, it made me sweat just to think about it. But I said okay. So we went up there, and when they announced my name I froze to my seat. My sister came to me and said, "You get up there.' "
Launched as a Singer
Roy continues, "To this day I cannot remember what songs I sang. But I sang a couple of songs and yodeled. They took my name and address — and I could not get out of there fast enough. I didn't know radio could make you that nervous, because you don't see your audience. Three days later I was called and joined my first group, the Rocky Mountaineers. I was there for over two years, when I organized the Sons of the Pioneers."
Roy also learned to ride bareback on a mule at the age of eight. When he was eleven his father purchased a horse that had been a sulky racer. Again he had to ride bareback. Roy says, "I never rode with a saddle, but, man, I could get on that horse — just grab his mane and swing over onto him. You get the feel of the horse and ride smoother."
I always envied Roy his smooth, natural ride in the saddle, since I had to learn riding as an adult. Roy's experience was just another way God had prepared him for his later role in westerns and at rodeos.
Roy comments, "When I look back on my life, many things have happened that seemed accidental, but as I look back on them now, I know it had to be God.
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"One of those things happened when I was with the Sons of the Pioneers on KNX in 1937. I was out at this hat store in Glendale, California, getting my hat cleaned. I was sitting there when a guy just about tore the door off in his hurry to get through it. He started looking around and said, 'Can I get a cowboy hat here?'
"I said, 'I don't know, since I am just getting mine cleaned. What's all the excitement about?' He panted, 'I've got to get a cowboy hat. I have a screen test in the morning at Republic Pictures. They are looking for a singing cowboy.'
"Well, I got my hat and left. I got to thinking about it, and said to myself, 'I just think I'll go there.'
Clearly God's Appointment
"When I got there the next morning, I could not get in. A man told me, 'You have to have an appointment.' I said, "I don't know anybody, but I've worked here with the Sons of the Pioneers." But he said, "You have to have an appointment before I can let you in.'
"I decided to wait. Along came a whole bunch of people back from lunch. Extras. So while he was taking names, I just walked in with the extras. I had just gotten through the door when a hand fell on my shoulder.
" 'Hi,' he said. 'What are you doing here?'
"I thought he was going to throw me out. So I said, 'Well, I've just been waiting around. I've been trying to get in all morning. I heard you were looking for another singing cowboy.'
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"He said, 'Well, that's why I stopped you. We've been testing these guys. You never once entered my mind. I've seen you over here in Gene Autry's pictures with the Sons of the Pioneers. But until you walked in the door I had not thought of it.'
"I was tied up at Columbia, so I got my release from Columbia, where we were doing backup music with the Sons of the Pioneers. They did the screen test at Republic Pictures, and I was signed up.
"So there are two things that nobody had anything to do with but God."
We don't, of course, establish biblical principles from our experience, but Roy's experience certainly illustrates how intimately God is involved in our preparation for His calling on us.
Chosen Before Birth
The apostle Paul is a New Testament example of how God chooses someone for a special purpose — and then shapes the person very deliberately until he or she recognizes what God wants to do in his or her life. Writing to the Galatians, Paul revealed that God had "set me apart from birth...that I might preach him among the Gentiles" (Gal. 1:15-16 NIV).
On what basis did God call the apostle Paul into this special service even before he was born? Paul wrote, "[He] called me by his grace...to reveal his Son in me."
So how did God prepare this Jew to be the pioneer in taking the gospel to the non-Jews of his day? Paul was born in Tarsus, a university city in Asia Minor, modern Turkey. Although he came from a strict Jewish family, he clearly was exposed to the Greek world of his day. He certainly studied Greek philosophy, for his sermon at Athens and his letters reveal a thorough acquaintance with it.
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As a young man he went to Jerusalem and studied at the feet of a leading Jewish educator, Gamaliel. He described himself in Philippians 3:5-6:
Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
Yet this very righteous Pharisee, who was convinced he was doing God's will, needed more than a zeal for God to be available for shaping by the Master Potter. He needed to meet the Master Potter in a very personal encounter. The dramatic story is told in Acts:
As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" And he said, "Who are You, Lord?" Then the Lord said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads." (Acts 9:3-5)
Now the man who would become Paul, the apostle, was ready for his first shaping experience as a new believer. God sent a very special servant of His, Ananias, whose words resulted in Saul's vision being restored. More than that, Ananias apparently shared with Saul God's revelation that the new convert would be "a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel" (Acts 9:15).
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God had thus shaped the fiery former persecutor of the Christians for a very special ministry. Because of his Jewish training, Paul was able to go first to the synagogue as he traveled on behalf of his Savior. He later reached out to the Gentiles, the non-Jews, in the community.
A Similar Commitment
A similar commitment prepared Roy for a truly worldwide influence as a Christian. When I came home from church after making a public commitment to Jesus Christ as Master Potter, I had changed so much that Roy noticed it. He asked, "What's happened?" And I said, "I've given my life to Jesus Christ. I've decided to follow Him."
Roy said, "I can tell something has happened to you. But leave me alone. Don't you be working on me."
There is no doubt that my desire to share my new joy embarrassed our friends in the movie business. I wanted everyone to have this peace that I had, the fantastic release in my spirit that I had experienced. Everyone, in fact, thought I was a fanatic. I remember publicity people saying, "You are going to ruin Roy's career and your own.
We had a party in our home — strictly a Hollywood party, with a lot of the people in the business present. I didn't drink, so I did not serve cocktails. I remember one of Roy's new leading ladies in his pictures noticing my lack of alcohol, and saying, "Evans, whatever
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is the matter with you? What happened to you? You are not the same.
I responded, "Well, I'll tell you. In the first place I have a family with small children. And I made a decision in my life to follow the Lord. I have had an experience with God, and I'm different inside. So I don't enjoy the things I used to enjoy." She just looked open-mouthed at me, since she really did not understand.
Roy had overheard the conversation, and since he had not yet made his decision, he was very angry with me — particularly over my comments about my responsibility for the children. He said, "If you don't like it, this is not the place to talk about it."
I went upstairs and cried. But the next morning he came down and asked me if I was going to church — and he went with us. That night he accepted Christ.
Now I'll let Roy tell his side of the story, how God was at work getting him ready to become clay in the hand of the Master Potter. "Dale did talk to me about what had happened to her. The kids started going to Sunday school. We started saying grace around the table. It would start with the kids, and as it went around the table it got closer and closer to me. I knew that one of these days the kids would ask me. And they did. After several months one of them turned to Dale and asked, 'Why doesn't Daddy ever say grace?'
"I don't remember exactly how it happened, but one day she said, 'Do you want to say grace, Daddy?' So I said my first grace. I had already been to church with Dale. And I was thinking hard about the job she had as a stepmother, and what a terrific job she was doing. One night at church everything the minister said seemed aimed right at me.
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Everything he said hit me between the eyes — the things I had done and the things I hadn't done. It really woke me up.
"When the minister gave an invitation to come forward and accept Christ, I could not get there quick enough. We've just had our forty-sixth wedding anniversary because we have the same vision about Christianity, about the way your life feels, and the way you feel about other people. It is just completely different from before."
God used the apostle Paul mightily in proclaiming the good news. In his own way, Roy has consistently maintained a witness for Christ by reaching out to disabled children and spotlighting the hymn or gospel song we sang at every television show or public appearance. With his abilities as a horseback rider and as a singing cowboy, Roy became in the hands of the Master Potter a credible representative for Him.
You may still be skeptical about putting your life in the hands of the Master Potter. So let's consider why we are afraid to trust Him — and what skills He brings to the table that should encourage our trust.
Reflecting on the Shaping
1. How much control have you felt you needed in order to be successful in today's world?
2. Read Romans 9:20-21. Do you believe the Lord has a right to make you into what He wants?
3. Which experiences in your life might be considered the Master Potter's shaping even before you acknowledged He was the Master Potter, and you the clay?
4. For which experiences are you grateful to the Master Potter right now?
