Jeremiah 18:1-6 
“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.” (NLT)

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“You are in my hand,” said God.

The You addressed here is God’s people Israel. What God said to them is true for us as well. God does the best makeovers. God renovates and restores. God refreshes and renews. God gives us a fresh start, a do-over. 

One of the most important lessons from my college days happened late one semester when I remembered that I had enrolled in self-paced biology. Read that sentence again. Give close attention to the words “late one semester.”

I earned the high privilege of taking that same course the next semester to erase the really bad grade I earned by not showing up for two or three months. This was a turning point. I did not have the self-discipline at that time to take a self-paced class. 

That was early in my college career. As graduation drew nearer, I enrolled in another self-paced class. This time I employed a new strategy. I showed up every week. I did the work. I earned a good grade. I successfully began again more intelligently. I learned a timely and timeless lesson from my failure. 

This was not the last do-over in my life. I’m pretty good, if I do say so myself, at failure. I love the book entitled, Fail Fast, Fail Often. This book could have the subtitle, The David Bowman Story. You might even feel like adding your name. 

If you search the internet for this book title, you will come across articles agreeing with this premise, and other articles warning against such a mindset. Which is right? As any good lawyer will tell you, “It depends.”

One of my favorite sayings goes like this: “If at first you don’t succeed, you’re about average.” Also, “If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is probably not for you.”

John Maxwell, the ever-quotable leadership expert said, “Sometimes you win, and sometimes you learn.” That’s truth you can hang your hat on. One of Maxwell’s best books is entitled Failing Forward. It’s worth your time after you fail, and before. 

Paul Harvey used to talk about avoiding Unerasable Mistakes. In other words, for some failures, there is no do-over, there is no beginning again more intelligently. As an old preacher liked to say, “The famous last words of a redneck are these: ‘Watch this.’”

God gave his people the opportunity to begin again, to live again, to thrive again. They had other plans. And so they failed utterly. 

God gives us opportunities to begin again more intelligently. We should take him up on every one of these opportunities. Hillsong’s Darlene Zschech co-wrote and sang a song that hits at the heart of how we should respond to God’s offer for us to begin again:

Take me and mold me, use me, fill me
I give my life to the Potter’s hand
Call me, You guide me, lead me, walk beside me
I give my life to the Potter’s hand

That’s good praying (and singing).

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I will give my life to the Potter’s hand.

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Our Father, this song is my prayer: 
Take me and mold me, use me, fill me
I give my life to the Potter’s hand
Call me, You guide me, lead me, walk beside me
I give my life to the Potter’s hand. 
Amen.