He Tried Again

+AMDG+

The readings for today.

Today is a great day to pick up where I left off. I have had an interesting couple of months. I was in Canada for a month and now that I am back I am trying to catch my bearings again. I've been reading more than usual, specifically books about this current generation and I have been getting worried. I believe this growing narcissism in our society, coupled with the relativism of our times and the constant state of flux with technology and economics will destroy the West. I know it sounds grim, right?

I prayed today.

Haven't in a while.

The Lord asked me why I worry so much,

I told him I was scared of pain and rejection.

He asked, why I worry so much as if He wasn't taking care of everything.

God is in charge, not me. Thank you God.

Today is a great day to start again and to trust in God again.

The first reading for today:

This word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
Rise up, be off to the potter's house;
there I will give you my message.
I went down to the potter's house and there he was,
working at the wheel.
Whenever the object of clay which he was making
turned out badly in his hand,
he tried again,
making of the clay another object of whatever sort he pleased.
Then the word of the LORD came to me:
Can I not do to you, house of Israel,
as this potter has done? says the LORD.
Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter,
so are you in my hand, house of Israel.

The reading today from the prophet Jeremiah reminds us that WE ARE THE CLAY.

WE ARE NOT THE POTTER.

Sorry this is the best noncheezy pic I could find.

I am not the Potter...

This is such a counter cultural idea especially from a society that tells us constantly, "Follow your dreams." "If you want something bad enough then you can achieve anything." And the ever popular line from Scarface:

The World is Yours... WHAT an Unchristian message!

How often we are told to forge our own destiny. We are shown constant examples of people mutually using each other in television shows just to get "ahead of the game." The only problem is that that "head" belongs to someone else.

I am not the Potter...

We are told about how Our Lord Jesus lived an ordinary life. He had the equivalent of a 9-5 job, bills to pay, taxes to give, garbage to throw out, school to attend and in the midst of all of it He didn't runaway. He was not a stranger to sickness, old age and death. What a remarkable contrast to the Buddha who sought to escape ordinary life to seek Enlightenment. He wanted to escape from this world and enter into the Nothingness... this is what he wanted. He wanted to be the potter of his life.

I am not the Potter...

Jesus embraced the ordinary. The Jesuits say, find God in all things. St. Benedict says, my everyone look at the tools for work as if they were the sacred vessels of the altar. He showed how this life can lead to God; he didn't escape from life through his prayer but brought his life to prayer and prayer to life.

I am not the Potter... I am the clay... Mold me... and remold me... and remold me to life!

Pray well!