I used to love it when my ceramics professor in college would share in chapel. He would set up his ceramics wheel with a lump of formless clay on it, spinning away as he spoke of the hand of God. Gently, he would speak of God's heart for us, the work of His hands. Inevitably, at some point during the talk, he would allow that lump of clay, to collapse and slide off the wheel, into a wet lifeless lump.
Splat!
We have all been there, feeling like a lifeless lump of clay, completely demolished. One day you can feel "on top of it" managing life and living in the fullness and the next, a family crisis, health scare or even your own failings can leave you leveled. It can be quite humbling. We are left to rebuild, beginning again at ground zero.
"Who am I again? Where is identity found? Who do I rely on when all is lost?"
Stripped bare, crushed down we get to see what we are made of and who or what we rely on in difficulty.
But it's not all hopelessly lost. At least demolition isn't supposed to be like that. It serves a very important purpose. My husband did some demolition on a house we bought this year. I assumed it would go quickly and casually as he took some hammers to some walls. But it was a longer process, a necessary one. Behind several walls he found the water damage from a few longstanding leaks. Under a bathtub he removed three dead rodents! From the outside you wouldn't know these issues were present. Yet, clearly, it was time for demolition. The great painful paradox-demolition of shaky, sketchy things must happen, but it almost always leads to rebuilding. And there is the hope.
When the Master Builder takes over that process, it's a beautiful one.
I can still envision my ceramics professor, rebuilding that lifeless lump, intentionally, pressing long and firm on top and side, centering that uneven pile of earth. Centering your clay on the wheel is a vital to creating a useful piece of pottery. Before you can go up, you must go down . . . and round with the Master's hand gently pressing in on all sides. Giving time to getting centered is His way. Spending time in His presence, allowing His healing hand to hold us begins the process. Letting Him touch and mold us, after being demolished is saying "yes" to redemption. He hasn't given up on us, even in our demolished state. He longs to draw near, pull us back to center and whisper "life" to that left over lump.
"By the roots?!" That was my initial astonished response after the storm. Apparently the wind had kicked up what some thought was either a full blown twister or a microburst on and near route 16. On the highway itself, it appeared as though an avalanche of trees plummeted down the hills on either side of the road, taking down electric wires and telephone poles like toothpicks strung together with thread. On our property several trees went down as well as in our neighbors' yards. The two towering trees that collapsed which brought the most shock were two extremely ancient, massive oaks that you would have never imagined could be felled by such a storm. But they were. And not just knocked down, but completely uprooted, leaving behind crater like holes a small vehicle could sit in.
Many times, the Lord speaks to me through object lessons or happenings from the natural world. As I was having my quiet time the following morning, thinking back to those huge oaks being torn out from the earth by their very roots, I sensed that quiet, yet familiar whisper,
"Those trees represent strongholds."
Okay. hmmmm. I pondered on. Strongholds. If you look at a Biblical meaning, we can see either the term stronghold can define something good, as in God being our stronghold, or something negative.
In 2 Corinthians 10:4 says, "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds." Further in 2 Corinthians it discusses "taking thoughts into captivity." This would imply that one stronghold we are constantly battling for truth to reign is in our own mind.
In terms of war, a stronghold was a place where the opposing side set up camp by taking over, displacing old authority and setting up a new rule.
I wondered again. Was the storm like God's judgment, even His wrath against sin and strongholds?
Yes, yes. That's it. It was God's anger and judgement against sin. This thought produced quite a lot of fear in me, I admit. God's judgement was real and not something to downplay. I immediately pictured a violent twister wrapping itself around those tree trunks, lifting them out of the ground and then each tree dropping with a crash next to its former home.
I thoroughly considered "Am I struggling against any strongholds right now?" "Was God telling me I was heading towards a season of judgement?" Nail biting ensued of course.
Fast forward 7 days later. A kind hearted stranger was warning us to head home from our local swimming creek as there as a large storm headed our way. As we surveyed the landscape around the creek bed we noticed a huge oak tree again fallen down to its roots. As we examined the fallen tree, the older man made a comment about the Good Lord and then described the reason behind the roots being pulled up. He explained, "The ground is so moist from all this rain, so these old beauties just end up coming straight out of the ground, roots and all during these strong storms."
Hours later, as I considered what he said, I felt that same familiar whisper echo on the inside.
"That strong rain is like my love being poured out to soften the hard ground."
Ohhhh. Wow. This changed my perspective in profound ways. God's love was actually paving the way for all this uprooting business! This was far different than the first image of His wrath coming in the form of a storm to destroy our strongholds.
I breathed a sigh of relief. God wants us to receive His love! This is step number 1 to displacing a stronghold of the enemy. He wants us to soak in, drink deeply, and receive, even in our weakness. Even our sin cannot deter His love. In that place of receiving, even enormous, ancient strongholds cannot stand. This was vastly different from my initial ideas about the storm and these trees. Does God discipline those He loves? I believe so. But one thing remains, even in the midst of our struggle against sin. His consistent downpour of love paves the way for old thought patterns to be broken, old mindsets to die and for strongholds to be completely uprooted.
God, as the perfect Father, can simultaneously hate our sin and also be raining down His perfect love to soften our hearts.
A PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Lord, thank you for your love. Thank you for the permission to receive your love even in the midst of weakness and discipline. Thank you that you love us perfectly and know how to extract even the largest of strongholds. Help me to receive your unconditional love today.
