As I laid in bed the other night, not thinking too deeply about much, the words of an old, but familiar hymn, ran through my mind. I’m not sure why those lyrics, or why that night, but they filled me and touched my soul deeply.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way! Thou art the Potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after Thy will; While I am waiting, yielded and still.
Written by: Adelaide A. Pollard; Music by: George C Stebbins; 1907
The next morning, with the help of Google, I looked up some information about this hymn and its writer. Sweet Adelaide, if you had been born a century later, or me a century earlier, I think we would have been good friends. I’m just so grateful someone was around to observe you back then and record some information about you. You truly inspire me.
Adelaide Pollard (1867-1934) was born in Iowa and later moved to Chicago where she was an educator at an all-girls school. While there she became known for being a gifted Bible study leader. Adelaide had a dream to be a missionary in Africa, but she was unsuccessful in raising the needed funds to go on the trip. One article noted that this caused a ‘crisis of the soul’ for her.
This is the part of her journey that touched me. Upon realizing she did not have the funds to go on a mission trip she had long planned for, the heartbroken Adelaide attended a prayer meeting. In the meeting, an elderly woman prayed, “It really doesn’t matter what you do with us, Lord—just have your way with our lives.” With that, Adelaide went home and wrote this beautiful hymn that we sing today.
The words that grab me every time I hear this song are, “while I am waiting, yielded and still.” I immediately picture a busy intersection, with a left turn lane that yields to oncoming traffic. I hate those intersections that don’t have separate green turn arrows. It literally is an accident waiting to happen when drivers are using their own judgment of when to accelerate a left turn in front of three lanes of oncoming traffic.
But stay with me here. What if in the middle of a soul crises, or a dark night of the soul, or a lengthy season of suffering, we met Jesus in the midst of all the yuck? Maybe at the intersection of Suffering and Mercy? I believe our Western culture teaches us to rush through suffering, or perhaps ignore it all together. Talk about an accident waiting to happen.
The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, “Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.” So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over. Then the Lord gave me this message: “O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand. Jeremiah 18:3-6
I’m pretty sure Adelaide meditated for some time on these same verses after her prayer meeting and before writing that beautiful hymn. What did she imagine? I venture to guess (since we would have been such close friends) that she was to the end of her rope. She had come to the place where she could do no more in her flesh to change her circumstances. She had to fall into the ever-loving arms of the Potter.
It was at the point of surrendering to her circumstances that the Potter swept up Adelaide, and then did His best work. She was just where He wanted her. Surrendered, silent and still. Oh, if only I could learn to slow my roll in my own suffering. It just seems so counter-intuitive to wait, stop, and be still when crisis is present.
The Lord said to Jeremiah, "Can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in My Hand."
And with that--yes, Lord--have Thine own way.
Adelaide wrote three more stanzas to complete the hymn. Each stanza is so rich that I wouldn’t do the song justice to include them all in one post, so stay tuned for Part Two.
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