The Patient Potter

 

It has been very interesting, during the past 12 years away from ministry, due to my affair, to hear the stories of others in similar situations. Most people leave. For me, staying created an unbelievably thick skin. Over the past decade, my thickened skin became calcified and bitter. I found I was often snarky and snappy. I didn't like who I was becoming.

God is a patient Potter. He kept spinning my wheel, dampening the clay, crushing and recreating this clay pot--until a man in His image could reemerge from the clay. I immersed myself in theology, anthropology, religion, sociology and more. I call that time of deconstruction and reconstruction my reformation years. God kept me on the Potter's wheel.

I knew I needed to fix my eyes on Jesus and let Him continue the work he started in me so long ago. But developing knowledge is so much easier than growing a relationship. In all my reading, study, and reformation, there is one thing I knew deep in my mind, as every true Christian does: Truth is a Person. Jesus said, "I am the Truth." Seeking truth outside a relationship with Jesus will never satisfy once you've known Jesus.

Over the past year, I have been working as a mentor for university-aged Adventists who are running Bible study groups in secular Australian universities. The hours of mentoring have reawakened in me the passion for Disciple-Making relationships. I am repeatedly inspired by the passion and heart of each young Jesus follower I mentor. I know how to ask good questions, but they know the joy of living between Jesus and seekers. Paul described this place when he said, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” He was the conduit between Jesus and new disciples. This is where every disciple-maker lives.

Living as a Christ conduit is what relational ministry is all about. And, I experience it vicariously each time I mentor one of these young leaders. In all my study, all my ministry, and all my searching, nothing makes me want to engage in disciple-making as much as talking to people who are thriving in disciple-making relationships. I want more Jesus and more relationships for Jesus!

In December 2024, I was asked to preach at Avondale Memorial's "Plus One" service. Jesus helped me write in words what he’s been writing in my heart in the past few years. What emerged was a sermon on humility. Developing that sermon touched something deep within me, in the brokenness beneath my thickened skin.

I call it: So They Might See Jesus.

Preaching it soaked my heart's crusty skin and made it more pliable. The next time I was asked to preach, I preached the same sermon. And again. And again. I've been asked to preach 17 times this year (all at different churches) and each time I pray for a sermon and God says, "Let's keep working on humbling your heart." And I preach it again. I preached it yesterday and plan to do so again in two weeks.

Every time I preach it, Jesus wraps my calcified heart in His crucified heart, and I feel His soft embrace surround and soften me. My favourite line from the sermon is, "When Jesus calls you to humility, He calls you to Himself." And, there’s nowhere I’d rather be.

I don't know why God has chosen to invest so much time and love into me.
But He has.

I've heard it said that suffering creates strength. Perhaps. One thing is definitely true: allowing Jesus to hold you while you suffer certainly heals hardened hearts!