Where you fall you can grow!

There can be moments in our life where we despair. Where life seems so bleak that we can't see the way ahead or the way through the crisis even.

In those situations we can take comfort from the following passage from the prophet Jeremiah.

The LORD said to me, “Go down to the potter's house, where I will give you my message.”  So I went there and saw the potter working at his wheel.  Whenever a piece of pottery turned out imperfect, he would take the clay and make it into something else. (Jeremiah 18 :1-4 GNT )

We know that Jeremiah thought that God is like the potter and that we are like the clay when we surrender our lives to him. When we are imperfect we can be made into something else if we surrender to God. Made into something better!

Years and years ago I had a nervous breakdown. I was in a very bleak position but went anyway to some friends to be prayed with. I think that I thought to myself that "well it can't do any harm." To my surprise I encountered a moment of grace with God and started to get better. One of my friends read the Jeremiah passage to me. After and during my recovery I cherished rereading that passage from Jerrmiah. It still means a lot to me when I hear the phrase "Go down to the potter's house"

John and I were walking in a wood yesterday and we found this massive oak tree that had fallen to the ground. It must have been ages ago that it fell because growing from the tree were all these vertical shoots of new trees coming up. See picture:

When I saw the tree lying like that horizontally, I thought here is something that has weathered disaster and is being renewed. The secret of this trees regrowth is that it is still able to draw nourishment through it's capillaries and use that nourishment to fuel growth. We can be like that tree too. Even when we have fallen in life, for whatever reason, if we can recognise that God is a source of nourishment we can turn to him and be replenished.

If we put our roots out to God we can draw strength from him. It might take time but we can become something new. In listening to God we might find that he tells us to change something in our life. Maybe to give something up that is harmful or to start doing something. For each one of us the catalyst to growth or healing might be different. But as it says in scripture "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart" - God allows  himself to be found when we look for him.

Dear Lord, I come to you today in my brokenness, help me to listen to you and draw nourishment from you. I seek only life, teach me what I need to change to find peace of mind and happiness in you. Amen