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| Out of the Miry Clay |
"He brought me up up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings." Psalms 40:2
Emil Brunner wrote that we are stuck so fast in the mire that we cannot help ourselves. We are all sinners in a wrong relationship with God and hence with our neighbours also. We are seeking ourselves. We wish to appear clever and to attain the highest by means of our own intrinsic powers. In our inmost being we have each gone astray. We are godless, loveless, self seeking, God-escaping. (Ref 1)
He is right. The Bible states in Romans 3, 'For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.' In the Old Testament, Isaiah said, "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way." (Isaiah 53:6a).
We are sinking in quicksand, the more we think we are in control of our lives, the more messy it becomes and in the clay pits we sink deeper. Fortunately, I learned the lesson of letting go and letting God early in medical school. When going through a period of examination failure, a classmate shared with me this verse from Psalms 40:2. She shared that when going through difficult times, God is there to set me right, to lift me out of the miry clay.
Subsequently I learned a follow-on lesson from Psalm 37:23-24, 'The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with His hand.' In the struggle of life, it is not I who need to grab and cling to the hand of God, instead, God's hand lifts me up.
This truth of not being afraid to lose your life rang true in the testimony of martyred missionary Jim Elliot. Elliot and four other missionaries, Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, Pete Fleming and Nate Saint attempted to bring the gospel to the Huaorani Indians in South America but were slaughtered by 10 Indian warriors on 8 January 1956. His biography was written by wife, Elisabeth Elliot and published under the title 'Shadow of the Almighty.' (Ref 2). In a journal entry on 28 October, 1949, Jim Elliot penned these words, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."
In similar fashion, Jesus said "Whoever finds his life shall lose it and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matt 10:39), Jesus meant that we must learn to lose control of our lives and hand it over to Him. We must not make ourselves and our survival the only point of our lives. If like the poet Henley we think, 'I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my destiny' we will find that instead of being in control, we will be at the mercy of forces beyond our control. We will sink deeper into the quagmire. Be like Saint Francis of Assisi who concluded, "It is in dying that we are born to eternal life." It is the same proposition as 'Let Go and Let God.'
More than just lifting us out of the miry clay, the Bible informs that something good will come out of our lives. My Christian friends, Kenneth and Huiwen are a husband and wife, team who founded Studio Asobi. Their works of art are inspirational. Huiwen wrote, "Making something out of clay, which is essentially worthless dust, and transforming it into something of value gives us a sense of responsibility." if we learn to surrender like useless lumps of clay to the potter, then something of value and worth will be the product.
Let God the potter do His work and shape our lives. He will fashion something of worth and beauty as we pray 'Change My Heart Oh God.' Isaiah said, "Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand." Isaiah 64:8.
Lionel
Ref 1: Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter. Plough Publishing House 2003.
Ref 2: Elizabeth Elliot. Shadow of the Almighty, The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot, Harper Collins
