What does “be the clay” mean to me?
I would not feel right if I didn’t give a shout-out to Ms. Lisa Nichols for this statement. I was watching one of her episodes on YouTube and she said that when she was in the process of building up her dream, she would get flustered, and her brother would tell her to “be the clay”. When she said that, I felt it more than I could verbalize what it meant.
You ever feel a way about something but you can’t explain it? It just resonates!
Although it’s hard for me to explain, it doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t try. So, first I want to look at the scripture Isaiah 64:8 (NIV):
Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.
While writing this, out of curiosity, I looked up the scripture to read it in different versions and to read around it to analyze it’s context. I wanted to understand this verse a little bit more.
What I found is that it’s a part of a dialogue that pursues God’s forgiveness, grace, and mercy. The energy I felt from it was that of surrender and acknowledgement that we are dependent of God. It is someone who is in trouble, admitting their sins and weaknesses, and begging God to step in.
The verse that I am referring to (Isaiah 64:8) is where we are humbling ourselves and acknowledging that God is our creator. We understand that a-part from our creator we are weak but attached we are strong.
Here is what “be the clay” means to me:
1. I was created by God, made for God, and can only be used by God. I am clay. Which means I am susceptible to being molded, carved, recreated, softened, and pressurized.
2. There is a higher power with His own Agenda that is orchestrating things.
3. Being the clay means accepting and perceiving my circumstances in life as tools God is using to make me more like Christ.
4. It means resisting my natural urges and resistances and doing things the way God wants me to do them.
5. It means when things feel hard or when I find myself in unpleasant moments in life, I accept that it feels hard and ask God to help me through it vs. turning external forces to make myself feel “strong”.
6. It means accepting the season I’m in and God’s perfect timing. All that I need is all that I have. I am fully equipped every step of the way and I do not have to know it all.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU?
-Kaitlin Alexander