criticism from the clay

He was everything I wasn’t: Tall, blond, blue eyes, a star athlete and a babe magnet.

I can still see him in his high school letter sweater with a big smile on his face and all the girls in the class looking at him, whispering among themselves. Meanwhile, a few desks over I’m secretly wishing an anvil drops on his head. If not that, perhaps a plague of some kind.

Except—and this was probably the most frustrating thing of all—he was a nice guy. A genuinely nice guy. Humble even though he was everything I wanted to be. Heck, he was what every high school guy wanted to be.

Comparing ourselves. I’m obviously guilty of doing that. Unfortunately, I still do that on occasion. (Not too much, of course, because I am, after all, preacher boy.)

“He’s the same age as me, but he’s not as fat. Rats! But, hey, he’s totally gray and I’m not—gotcha!”

I’m pathetic. Also sinful.

Comparing myself to others is never a good idea, but if it leads to discontentment and questioning how almighty God made me, well, I’m treading on thin ice.

"Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you making?' Does your work say, 'He has no hands'? Woe to him who says to his father, 'What have you begotten?' or to his mother, 'What have you brought to birth?' "This is what the LORD says--the Holy one of Israel, and its Maker: Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands?"1

While this rebuke is directed against Old Testament Israel, the application to me—and perhaps you, if you struggle in this area as well—is obvious: We, as the clay, have no right to question the potter.

God didn’t make me tall, blond and with blue eyes that make girls swoon. So what? That’s the potter’s prerogative.

Translated, I need to be content with who I am, who God made me. While there are some things I can change, other things I can’t. It is what it is. I am who God made me to be.

How about you? Are you satisfied with your physical appearance? Are you satisfied with how God made you?

If there are things we can change, then we’re free to pursue them.  But those things that we can’t change, well, how about we just let them go?

"Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker.”

1  Isaiah 45:9-11