Have you ever wrestled with God? Have you ever wanted so badly to give a situation to Him to handle but had a hard time letting go, even though you wanted to? Even though you knew you needed to? Even though you knew He wanted you to but you were afraid to totally let go knowing that you might end up miserable and in a vulnerable place...again? That's the best way I know to explain where I with a situation that forced itself into my life. I'm not usually so stubborn with God, but as things went along I realized that it wasn't that I didn't want God to have it, it was that I was afraid of what He might do with it after it was completely out of my hands. I was doubting the wisdom of God in my life because I was afraid that He would allow more pain and I couldn't imagine how I would ever make it through. 

The funny thing is that the situation has never really been under my control in any sense. The consequences of it just landed squarely in my lap like a meterorite the size of Texas falling from the sky and it left me crushed beneath the weight of it and as any normal human would do, I went into self-preservation mode in an attempt to salvage what part of my heart was still left and tried to put a strategy in place to guard my heart so it could heal and hopefully never be in that position again. It's human nature.

Unfortunately, in trying to understand what had happened, I questioned God, wondering why He had allowed something like this to happen and eventually questioning His goodness and the power of prayer. And you know what? God never left me, even when I was upset with Him. He gently pulled me back and entered into my everyday life in a new and wonderful way. As we walked the healing road together, He would reach over and say, "give that to me." I would let Him have it for a moment or two but then would grab it back while I questioned His intentions. Again, He would lovingly say, "give it to me please. Let me take this burden from you and use it to make something beautiful of your brokeness." 

Part of my hesitation in allowing God to do what He wanted was because I forgot the alphabet. Because I had never been in a situation quite like this one before, I did what everyone does, I Googled it and found that there was a myriad of opinions out there. What one said I should do, another said I shouldn't. One would predict one outcome, the other a completely opposite outcome. Both had years of experience, research and even Bible verses to back them. What was confusing was that none of them instructed me to do what had come to me initially in the first few moments of recognizing that I had a situation to deal with. I had just crumpled on the floor, looked up to heaven and said God, I don't know to do. I don't know what to say. Please help me! 

God did not give me the whole plan up front like Google did. He gave me one instruction and then the next day, He added a little to it. And so it went, day by day by day and it was the exact oppposite of what Google had laid out for me. In fact, God is still leading me day by day as we walk the healing road. Many times the devil would come and taunt me, telling me that this was all going to explode right in my face, that I was being a fool to think that God was going to intervene in my situation when He obviously hadn't for so many others. And so I vasillated between believing that I had really heard God and thinking that I was just refusing to see the writing on the wall and wasn't facing reality. 

Than God began to talk to me in prayer. One day, I sensed Him asking me to be quiet, in essence to just shut up already, and I realized that I had been going to God and telling Him what I so desperately needed, how things were supposed to look, what I was hoping the resolution would look like, how quickly I wanted it to happen, and reminding Him that I was asking according to His will and that it would glorify Him in the end. Prayers prayed in desperation must be accompanied by faith, not just hope, when asking and because I had already questioned God's intentions, they were mostly asked in desperate hope. When I finally did shut up He began to talk. He said, "I know what you need. I see your fragile heart, but it is stronger than you know because you see, I have taken the dust that was your heart before and I have made something new from it. Now, I want you to do what I told you in very beginning. I know it flies in the face of conventional Christian opinion. I know Google doesn't agree but don't forget, God comes before Google. I know it sounds crazy. I know it puts you in a position so vulnerable that it's terrifying to you, but that's okay. I just want you to entrust me with your life. Remember, I have instructed you to "not be anxious about your life." Even if the very worst scenario that you could imagine happens, you will be okay because you are not who you were when this all started. I want you to count the cost of following me in this situation and make a decision and once you have made the decision to let me have this, I don't want you to ever look back and question if you made the right decision. I have told you what is best. Follow me."

Then one Saturday night, I could not sleep. After trying everything I knew to go to sleep, it dawned on me that maybe the Lord had me awake for a reason so I asked Him and He said to me, "it's time. Tell it goodbye and give it to me. You've been able to make absolutely no headway as long as you've had it in your hands. Make the decision and believe that my grace is sufficient, my power knows no bounds, and I have only your good in mind in anything that might come in the future. As I have walked with you thus far, I will walk with you again. And so I did what the Lord asked of me. i gave it to him, with a little fear and trepidation, and promptly fell asleep. 

The next morning I drove to church. During the morning worship service, a message in tongues was given. The interpretation was everything that the Lord had spoken to me the night before and in the days leading up to my decisions to finally let go of it and let Him take control. God confirmed that He had heard me the very first time as I lay crumpled on the floor and I had heard Him correctly, even in the midst of my confusion and pain. He didn't scold me for wasting so much time. He didn't chide me for being stubborn. He didn't demean me for being caught up in the weakness of my human flesh and intellect. He just poured His peace and a new resolve into my Spirit that I have never had before. I know He's doing something good. He's making me grow up in Him a little bit more and believe me, growing pains have been involved. 

I learned a valuable lesson though. God is with us, even in the worst of times. God doesn't cause a lot of the bad things that happen to us, but He allows them for a righteous reason. He will still speak in a way that we can hear and understand. And He will help us with them IF we will trust Him enough to give them to Him. Surely He never leaves or forsakes us and He is help in times of trouble. Go to Him first. You won't be disappointed.

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Life is always changing. It's inevitable. For our family, it's as if the Lord took the elements of our lives in His hands and just threw them up into the air. So for now, we're just waiting to see where everything settles.

If we didn't know the Lord as well as we do, if we neglected to remember all the times that He came through in similar situations, if we didn't completely trust His ways and timing, we might be a mess right now. But we're not. We take solace in knowing that if all we know turns to dust and it means that we have to start over, it's okay because God uses dust to create new things.

He formed us from the dust of the earth. That word can mean dry earth, dust, ashes, or debris. So when life leaves you sitting a heap of ashes or the debris of unfortunate circumstances, take heart! God is about to create something new! 

When the potter wants to reuse the clay from a pot that cracked, he takes the broken pieces and grinds them into powder. Then water is added to rehydrate the clay. But that is not enough to ensure that the clay will not crack again during firing. So, sand or stone is added to "temper" the clay. Temper, or "grog" as it's more commonly called is stone or shell that has been ground down to a certain size mesh, like the size of sand sugar, or small pebbles. By adding the right amount of this gritty grog, the created piece is less likely to crack when under the intense heat of the firing oven because it lowers the plasticity of the clay and makes the pot more permeable. It helps the created piece remain truer to size and form and adds stability.

As with earthly clay, when we are humbled, God can create something new that is stronger, truer, and more stable-resistant to the enemy's fiery darts. In Ephesians 5, Paul admonishes us to walk as children of God and warns us of the evils that prevail on earth. He reminds us that we live in an evil world and that there is a battle to wage. 

This grit that has been ground out of the ashes of our failures, past experiences, and life lessons causes us to become stronger and unbreakable when the potter is finished re-fashioning our lives. The new permeability that it adds allows the Holy Spirit to flow more easily through us into the world. What a wonderful thought. A broken life is never wasted by the Lord. He takes our brokenness and remakes it into something more beautiful and useful.

So if you're life feels like a heap of ashes or a pile of dust right now, be of good cheer! Don't allow discouragement to leave you useless. It doesn't mean your life is over. God is going to take the pulverized areas of your life and re-create you into a useful vessel that He can use.  As Patsy Clairmont's book title says, "God Uses Cracked Pots."

Israel's life and existence seemed to be over but God said to them, "Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth, shall you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." Is 43:19

God remembers that we are dust. We need to remember that too. Dust in the hand of a Redeemer who is also creative can become a beautiful creation. To God-the potter, it's never over!