When Backwards is Really Forwards

Many of you know that my love of pottery has been recently rekindled.  I just about relish in every moment of it. 

My first of the collection

One of my favs

The other night, I was sitting at the potter’s wheel.   I wasn’t in my normal spot, mind you, but in a new one.  I was sitting in a class with a teacher over my shoulder.

When I started opening the clay into a pot, my teacher leaned over and noticed maybe the most pivotal observation. 

“Are you left handed?” she asked.

“I am, in fact, both handed... maybe that explains some things,” I said tongue and cheek. 

She chuckled for a moment and then looked again.  She noticed how much force I was using to open the pot up and mentioned that my wheel might be going in the wrong direction. 

“Huh?” I was stumped. 

“See, some potters find it easier to have the clay moving out of their hands instead of moving inward,” she said.  “They find that their fingers don’t knick the clay (ah ha!) and it is less of a fight.”

Hmm... my white knuckles were evidence enough.   I have been fighting. 

“Ok, let’s try it.”

So, with one flip of the power plug, the wheel turned in the opposite direction.  For a moment I didn’t know what to do with myself.  Where do I put my hands?  How does this work?  It was like my eyes were playing tricks on me.

But, I put my hands in place and gave it a whirl.  Wouldn’t you know… it worked!

It was easier too.  The pot was more balanced.  I didn’t have to fight. 

As she further explained the benefits, I looked up at her and said: “There is a life lesson in this.” 

I went on to think: “Yup! Here’s the next blog post.”

Since that time, I’ve thought and prayed over where I’ve been applying so much force in my life and getting nowhere, that if I just turned my wheel around, per se, I’d actually move forward. 

Granted, I had no clue “my wheel” was spinning in a direction that was causing a hindering issue in the first place.  I had to be shown that.  I had to then listen, heed and follow. 

I also had to be ready.  So many times in life, don’t we all wish we had known then what we knew now?  It’s quite a study to look back and say: “I can see how that answer came now, because I wasn’t ready, or didn’t have the ears to hear it then.”

Scrutinizing where we are fighting so hard in our lives also reveals some other interesting revelations.  

Many times, when we fight for a goal, project, person and find zero results we count those as flat out failures.  I know I’ve hung my hat for so long at what didn’t work out, what I did wrong, etc., etc., etc.  However, I feel that God’s Spirit showed me something different. 

He revealed that for me to move forward, I needed to change my wheels of thought in an opposite direction.  I needed to go “backwards” if you will.

So, ok.  Let's both change the plug around and re-assess.

Here are two principles that God brought to mind.

1.     Results aren’t the score-card of success in life, but how God chooses to redeem and orchestrate the situation is the winning ticket to grab onto.

2.     God measures us not by our results but by our response to His calling and His will.  Are we obedient to follow Him?

Romans 8:28, NIV: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

Philippians 2:13, NIV:  “For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose."

He instructed me to take these versus, rework my assessment and this time, measure in the light of eternity instead of how the world measures. 

So let’s take what plagues our hearts and hold it up to the light. 

For me, my question was:  “God, I felt I obeyed you and then landed flat on my face.  You lead me to failure.  Faith in you didn’t work.” 

In the light, it changed to: “God, I felt I obeyed you and your will was different than what I wanted.”  

From this point, I could finally recognize that just because it didn’t work the way I wanted it to go, it didn’t mean that I should count it as a complete wrong on my part or that I utterly failed.  I could no longer look at the obvious result of the situation and firmly claim was all my fault, deserved it or whatever and should hang my hat on it.  Nor should you. 

In addition, we have to recognize that the reason the results turned out how they did may have very little to do with us.  God’s purposes and reasons are so far beyond what we can comprehend, that we have to trust Him with the outcome, because He is the one in control.  Not you.  Not me.   And when it comes down to it, the results ought to really be about Him anyway.  Not you.  Not me. 

For He alone is Sovereign, over everything; seeing from before the creation of time to beyond the end of time.   He has an entirely different perspective all together:  He has an eternal perspective.

So, if we take on that same perspective, we will also be able to more fully see that God will use all things for His purposes.   Applying this concept to how we measure previous results will also enable us to look at the results (what didn’t work out) in the opposite regard:  as actually working out in the end.

But also in the light of eternity, the question shifts from a focus on the results to focusing on our response.

And that leads us to…. Surrender. 

The bottom line here is what did we do with the opportunity or event that was presented before us?  Did we surrender by saying:  God, whatever you want; not my will, but yours? 

Or did we plunge forward pursuing what we thought would satisfy, bring self-approval and fill ourselves with what never truly fulfills? 

Where do you fall with these two questions?

No matter where you land on this spectrum, all of us find ourselves taking baby steps to regain trust, obey and surrender.  So, no matter what your answer is, you are in good company.  

Just try to take the progressive step to trust God with the outcome.  Trust His promises, faithfulness and then step out in faith and obey.  Then take the step to surrender to do His will, not your own… (all of which are serious toughies!). 

After surrender, then comes another toughie…. Acceptance.   When the parts of us want to shout: God’s will is this????  We can counter with “Yes.  In the light of eternity, it will all make sense when we see Him again.”  

It’s in this acceptance of God’s will that we will find peace.  Through the progressive acts of trust, obedience, surrender and acceptance there comes a soothing comfort, especially when we fall upon the knowledge of how God truly measures us and that He is faithful the whole way through.  He can be trusted with the results. 

Learning these foundational principles has been an extremely hard road to travel upon.   But, when I learned to spin my wheel backwards, I have, indeed, found the hope to move forward.  My knuckles weren’t nearly as white and I didn’t have to fight so hard.

May it be for you as well. 

Blessings,

Candice

***P.S.

Undoubtedly I must say, this poses further questions to those who have lost loved ones in any manner, as well as for those who’ve experienced tragedy in accidents, harm from another, miscarriages, catastrophic events, an unwanted divorce, and so many more.   I’m sensitive to the recipients of the words above because I’ve been in dramatically hurtful circumstances and wanted to punch every well-intended person who said: “God has a plan.”  THUNK!!! (There it is in virtual form.)

In fact, I’ve been on both sides of this table.  I’ve been the person who has suffered and the person who has said something in efforts to help when I brought a lot of harm.  Please, Christians especially, watch your words and your TIMING!!!!

So, please take the words above from one who does not know or even imagine your personal situation.  I only speak from my heart out of my own circumstances.  I don’t know how you get out of your pit, I can only relay what I learned to get out of mine.

Thus, when I say I have to surrender what I count as losses on my behalf and look at it from a different perspective, I’m really saying that God is showing me something new that brings healing to me.  I share it with you in hopes that it can be a source of comfort and encouragement in your journey as well.***

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God," (2 Cor. 1:3-4, NIV).

Blog content and photos © 2014 Candice Irion.  All Rights Reserved.