Soft and Centered

I pulled up to the house and saw Sarah there on the porch with a pottery wheel unbothered by the cool breeze that filled the air.

I sat in the chair beside her admiring the clay spinning between her hands and said “What’s all this?”

“It’s clay… My Teacher said the trick to making something useful is to keep it soft and centered.”

“Soft and centered….” His spirit danced on her words the same way the wind danced on the trees.

“He also said it’s really messy but that it’s just a part of the process.” She smirked knowing exactly what she was doing.

“But how do you know when it’s no longer centered?”

“Oh you’ll know…” she said as she tapped her hand on her heart.

Sometimes the best way to know something is to know what it’s not… the pain of disconnection. The pain of going our own way. The pain of hurting people we love… it’s the product of un-centeredness. And while there is no condemnation there is conviction. And maybe to live a life of conviction just means to live a life of centeredness… softly submitting to the kind and slow hands of our maker.

She took her foot off the petal, repositioned the clay to the center and continued…

And maybe when things get messy and dreams stay stagnant and bills stay unpaid and diagnosis’s stay unhealed and relationships break and loneliness tries to convince us it’s our friend and refuge, maybe that’s when conviction matters most. Maybe that’s when we’ll hear the same question that has echoed through all of eternity “Where are you?”

And maybe we’ll answer with tears and it will take us longer than we’d like to soften but maybe just maybe we will bravely whisper “I’m here. Help…”

Centering. Excavating. Discovering. Rooting. Molding. Shaping. Repenting.

What I’m trying to say is maybe art isn’t about the finished product but is about the process. And maybe the finished product of our clay will be useful because it will hold something, like the story of His faithfulness

And lastly, maybe conviction is a cemetery for our pride. And maybe it’s the death of our pride that will resurrect His hope inside of us… the kind of hope that keeps us centered, soft & slow enough to fight the good fight