My Rock in Clay

I have been asked by a dear friend of mine to speak at a gathering of Christian educators on Saturday. I said yes, because I couldn't refuse to share the story of God's grace in my life. But as the day draws nearer, I'm filled with doubt and ask myself what could I possibly say without sounding like a zealot or an indulgent navel-gazer or a pompous modern-day Pharisee...

There is a song we sing in church which starts "My Saviour, Redeemer, Lifted me from the miry clay..." and that is exactly how I would describe my experience with God. I imagine the stickiness, the wetness of a swamp of clay and the hand of God reaching in and firmly pulling me out of a way of life that seems so distant now. 

If I were honest, I would admit that the clay is never far off. It is quite easy to fall into the muck again. There is a saying in Proverbs 6:10-11 that I think of every time I hit the snooze button on my alarm clock in the morning - "A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest - and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man." It's true - I tell myself, "just ten minutes more, just a short five minutes" and the next thing I know I have overslept and I rush to work without my morning prayer or Bible reading. I know it's like that with major issues as well - I say to myself, "just this one time" and soon one thing leads to another and I am either daydreaming or involved in gossip or reading another chapter of a story book instead of my devotional ... It can go on. The clay is always wet at my feet.

So I wonder what I will say on Saturday. The real work of Christ in my life is too private for  public sharing. His faithfulness, protection and provision to me will remain known only to a few. My life in Christ is not public - I have no ministry in church, no gifts of healing or worship or exhortation or intercession or prophecy. My Christ just holds me together and gives me daily bread and enough hope, love and trust for one day at a time. My Christ gives me one spot of solid rock to stand on in the midst of the miry clay.