Sometimes I feel like God’s paper clip. Not because I hold things together, but for another reason. Perhaps it’s because of that need we all have to be needed. A need for significance. Let me explain.
Every profession has it’s tools. Carpenters use hammer, saw, level, measuring tape, nails, etc. Some tools are essential; used every day; especially cared for and protected; greatly appreciated because they provide such great usefulness. Other tools, nails for example, are literally a dime a dozen, or less. Good for one purpose. Used once. Easily replaced or substituted. Needed, but not special.
Well, I work in the computer industry. The tools of my trade are things like computers and software, cables, screwdrivers, keyboards, cable testers and . . . paper clips. When the cable modem or DSL router won’t work or the CD gets stuck in the CD reader, you need a paper clip. Grab a paper clip from the nearest desk, bend it straight, push the little recessed “reset” button with it, then toss it aside. There’s plenty more paper clips where that one came from. A useful tool no doubt, but not very extraordinary.
If this is starting to sound like a poor-little-me pity party perhaps that’s because it probably is. But in the process of writing about poor little me, perhaps I can remind myself (and maybe even a few others) that being God’s bendable, useable paper clip is not all that bad. The screwdriver and the computer may get used a lot more, but there are times when only a paper clip will do the job.
You never know when God will reach down, give me a quick bend, and use me to set something right. I trust he doesn’t toss me aside when he’s through either. He has a whole toolbox full of bent paper clips like me. If you asked him why he keeps them I believe he would say, “Those aren’t paper clips! Those are special tools. I keep them all. You never know when I might need them again.”
Anyway, I would rather be one of a thousand paper clips in the bottom of God’s tool box than the most prized tool in the devil’s workshop, wouldn’t you? Stay bendable, be ready for God’s hand, and keep looking for that next reset button.
Has the potter no right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special use and another for ordinary use? – Romans 9:21
Very good son. I have felt like a paper clip much of my life, I had rather be a paper clip in the hands of the Lord than a big cheese in the hands of the devil.jfs
I’d rather be a doorkeeper (or a paper clip) in the house of the Lord than to dwell (seem more important) in the tents of the wicked.
I know what you mean. I want to feel important and uniquely necessary!
Do you think being a paperclip is like being a glass container? Being either such thing isn’t grand, and it won’t make me feel accomplished by my own merits. But although paper clips and glass containers are not “uniquely necessary,” they are necessary. Have you ever been without a paper clip when you REALLY needed to press the reset button? There might be a pen around, a screwdriver, a key… plenty of tools that could almost work but not quite. It is so frustrating! Maybe ANYBODY could be God’s paperclip, but this time YOU get to be HIS tool of choice! What an honored place, to be used by the hand of GOD.
And the difficult truth is that I, myself, am not much to look at. He is so much grander a focal point than I am, even on my best day. But if I can humble myself to be something clear and empty or small and useful then my Maker is what people see (instead of me, the simple instrument). Whew, that is easy to say and difficult to do.
I Corinthians 15:10&11
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
Jac,
Wow. You’re words, and the scripture below are a big blessing. Thanks for taking the time to share such wonderful thoughts.
ILYM
You are welcome, Dad. They are God’s words. He has to remind me of them all the time. I love you!!