Listen to me, if I could sit down with you and tell you all that has happened in my life, it would be one marveling session after another! Even I marvel, as I remember the hard, hard lessons that are a part of my story! As a hopelessly lopsided piece of earthenware wallowing deep in the heap of “good for nothings,” the Potter lifted me out and placed me on His wheel of “rebirth!” It was a redemptive rescue. However, impatience demanded a finished product, immediately. I was insistent on a look of perfection that transpired ASAP. What I would come to learn is the necessity of the kiln and not as a one-time event, but a repeated action to get at the heart of the matter for a complete transformation. This found me voicing disapproval to the Potter insisting that an external sheen would be sufficient. The process of rebirth is a one-time event but the remaking of a piece of earthenware requires a daily discipline of connecting with the Potter and His remarkable training manual: the Bible; A dying to self: where my value as a cheap lump of earthenware is transformed into a polished porcelain piece of pottery reflecting Christ! It involves the heart! Albeit the Potter is never surprised by my impatience or complaints. It is exactly that stiff-necked attitude which caused the Children of Israel much heartache and grief. Refusing to enter the Promised Land because of the giants, they spent forty years wandering in the wilderness.

Imagine the extra time we spend wandering instead of becoming a productive piece of polished earthenware!

There we saw the giants (Numbers 13:33). Giants are so easily seen, aren’t they?! They stand out, bigger and badder 😉 !

Caleb and Joshua saw the giants, yet they stand out as our role models! Because even though they saw and reported the size of the enemy living in the land they were to possess, they shifted their perspective to the slayer of giants, the One Who had promised! The Potter!

Through the many testings, the hard places of life, the cruel fate of others, and even the painful diagnoses, the burning fires continue to bring endurance! The Potter knows it is through these very experiences that we learn to endure! Otherwise, we delay usefulness to our Maker if we do not withstand the heat of the Kiln!

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

James 1:2-4, NLT

Some very dark years where Hope was lost; Destructive mindsets raged! Had it not been for the Potter’s wheel bringing a healthy perspective as he reshaped my thinking, I would have never had the endurance to withstand the onslaught. I can never thank Him enough for patiently and persistently being by my side throughout all these many years and continues to…as I know the lessons will continue for the Potter to receive the glory that He deserves!

Have you learned to be thankful in the midst of the hard?

Jeremiah 17:9-10; Jeremiah 18, 24:7; Galatians 5:24; 1 Peter 1:7; Numbers 13