I led a ministry with a team that was in the process of hiring a new head coach. As media speculation centered on a potential candidate, I groaned, “Lord, this guy has a reputation for having no regard for a ministry to the team. Can’t you send us a more helpful coach?”

Within days the team hired that head coach who had no regard for a team ministry.

I was saying to God the Potter, “What are you doing?” Many of the Christian players had grown complacent in their walk with God in the previous season. I assumed that a strong Christian coach would be just the thing that would awaken them spiritually.

I wanted a favorable environment; God went with a difficult environment. As a result, the Christian players broke from their apathy and thrived under the challenge.

It no longer mattered that the head coach limited my access to the team. As “insiders,” the Christian players were in the best position to impact their teammates.

God knew exactly what He was doing by sending a spiritually resistant coach to a spiritually complacent locker room. God did more things in the lives of the players in a difficult environment than we had seen in years!

In Isaiah 45:9, God was speaking to people who thought He should do His work differently than He was doing it. They had a beef with Him over using an ungodly leader to do His work.

God questioned how an object could argue with its creator. Can a chunk of hardened dirt know more than the all-knowing God of the universe?

God’s desire is that we simply be moldable, that we allow Him to work in our lives through unlikely, unexpected, unwelcome and uncomfortable ways. He is the Potter and we are the clay.

Check out Isaiah’s amazing expanded description of God in Isaiah, chapters 40-45.