Emergents Weblog

Dear Jonathon,

Thanks for writing me. It ’s good to hear from friends. You ask a good question… you wrote:

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I learned years ago and taught a lesson that: it is far better to learn from the struggles of another rather than to insist on going through you own to learn the same. Yet some lessons and strengths only come by being tested, broken and shaped again and again.

That is part of it for me, which is different for others. I do have a fair amount of personal strength and resolve. I think most of my pride was broken years ago, but Humility is a VERY low valley.  It lies somewhere below sea level but those who live here are not underwater. The vegetation that grows here is unique, as are the people. I’ve lived in California and Virginia – each has their own natural wonders and strain of culture. I have been amazed how God has given me wisdom at a young age and allowed me to minister to the needs of so many young and old. How God has given me millions to manage and thousands of people to care for. How God has moved through me so that He could bless others in unique ways. But this valley called Humility has grown on me too. Here, people don’t care so much about where you have been or what you think you have done. Content to stay right here, those of us who live here are pleased to welcome and minister to anyone who might think they are just passing through and those who have come to join us.

Earlier in my journey when God was breaking me and my pride, I used to think that humility was a simply a process to build up the strong to be stronger but in God’s mold. – The image was like smashing an unfired clay pot that was had dried out but was no longer helpful to hold things and not fashioned quite right to be fired and used to hold water.The Potter smashes those pots and places them in the “sludge machine” where they are wetted again, mixed with the Potters water, blended to a smooth workable clay until it is ready to be fashioned again, perhaps for a slightly different use, perhaps the same (smaller or larger). …

This time, here in the valley of Humility, it seems as though the ground is made of the shards of old pots. We walk on them as do the sojourners who pass through here. Every footstep is breaking them down further, making them into a fine powder. If you dig down with your finger you will find layers of dust and some strata where the shards are larger. Perhaps because fewer people wandered the valley in those years. Sometime you find larger pieces that tell a story of what the pot was used for in the past and the nature of the minister.

I wonder, what will God do wihh the clay that he has here in the valley. Is it the clay that is giving birth to the unique vegetation here, is it the air that is calm with only a slight breeze. No worry. I have grown to like it here. I am not in a rush to leave and may well stay here. But is that what God wants? I am not certain. Even though it has been nearly three years, I have not lived here long enough to hear the stories of the others. I don’t know why some seem to come and stay and others pass through after a night or even a few years. So it makes me wonder a bit more – what is my fate?
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You ask a good question  Jonathon, You evolked in me a stream of thought that has been stirring without words for months now. It feels good to write it out.

Thanks for ministering to me today. You have blessed me.