There’s a lovely image in today’s first reading from Jeremiah:

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.

An invitation

In the midst of your business and busyness today take a few seconds now and then to recall that you are not your own creator.

We are creatures, created by God who loves us and moulds us and fashions us using the events and encounters of every day. God especially likes using our most difficult and most unwanted circumstances because this is where we are most vulnerable and dependant and therefore more open to letting Him work in us. 

God is the potter and I am the clay being moulded in His loving embrace.

My quote of the day from Julian Carron: “Others do not create problems for us; Others make us aware of the problems we have.” 

The great thing about this perspective is that if others cause our problems we leave ourselves quite powerless to resolve the difficulty. If the problem is ours (and the difficult behaviour of others is simply making us aware of our problem) then we are empowered to move forward freely.

With our co-operation, God is able to use every problem as a way of moulding us into full and abundant life.

interview with Carron here