“Why bother?” “What am I good for?” “Can God even use me?” “If they just knew what I’ve done…”
Have you ever had a time when these negative thoughts have invaded your mind? Maybe it was after a youthful mistake when you disappointed God. Perhaps it was late at night when you just could not get your colicky newborn to quiet down and rest. Maybe it was in a dark and lonely place in life where it seemed as if the sun would forever hide behind heavy, charcoal storm clouds. We all have had negative, doubtful, or discouraging thoughts from time to time. Even some of the people that we most admire in the Bible have had these same thoughts. We can take comfort in the fact that we are not alone.
Elijah should have been on a spiritual mountaintop after the victorious display of God’s might on Mt. Carmel. However, in I Kings 19:4, Elijah said, …O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.
David, the man deemed as being after God’s own heart, said in Psalm 22:6, But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. David, the king who God Himself had chosen, was feeling that his own actions had left him despised of the very people God left in his charge.
Although life will bring times when we may feel we are at a spiritual low, we must remember that God has a purpose: a purpose for trials; a purpose for the difficult times; and, most importantly, a purpose for us. There will never be a time when God has no use of us.
As I was reading in Job several months ago, a phrase in chapter two stuck out to me: And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal;… Now, I do not know why this phrase stuck out to me. Maybe I was feeling a little loopy because the first thought I envisioned was a group of pots grazing in a field—I imagined a “herd” of pots! It was after this little chuckle that I realized I wanted to know the actual definition of a potsherd. Simply put, a potsherd is a piece of a broken pot.
While reading this passage, God brought another verse to my mind. Isaiah 64:8 says, But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. I began to think about Job’s potsherd. For what was it used? Was this once a pot that Mrs. Job used to fetch water? Was it a pot once used to contain oil? One thing is for certain: When the potter was taking care to mold and create the pot, I sincerely doubt that he was thinking, “Someday, little pot, you will be broken to pieces and used to scrape a man’s painful and itchy sores.” While I do not know what the intended use for the pot was, I can say with ninety-percent assurance that it was not to be a sore scraper.
However, something happened to Job’s pot. One day it was shattered. It could no longer bring water to the thirsty. It could no longer contain oil or flour for the hungry. In pieces it sat, seemingly unusable. Please permit me to personify that small potsherd. In its broken state, it sat waiting. Perhaps it sat in sorrow, believing its life was over and believing no one would want or need it ever again. It may have been thinking as Elijah had, …O LORD, take away my life;…
However, one day when Job was afflicted, he did not reach for a beautiful pot filled with ointment. Beauty could not satisfy the need he had. He did not reach for a sturdy pot filled with water or food. He reached for the broken piece of a pot—a potsherd. Those rough, sharp edges fulfilled the need Job had.
When God formed us, I do not believe He made us to be broken. However, just as is true in the life of the pot, our lives become a little chipped, a little scratched, or even shattered. We, as a creation of our Heavenly Father, the Great Potter, were made with a purpose. We were created to serve Him.
Perhaps sin has tarnished our beauty. Perhaps trials have stymied our usefulness. Christ, in His perfection, continues to seek to use us. He uses the broken pieces of man to fulfill His needs. As a complete vessel, we fulfill His purpose for our lives. Still, even with our chips, cracks, and rough edges, Christ takes us—just as Job took that potsherd—and uses whatever we have to serve Him. This is good enough of a reason to never give up on being used of God! Though our pieces no longer carry water, they may be just enough, through Christ, to carry relief to those in need and to fulfill our purpose in Christ.
by Krystal Salm
