Dust

“Even if he causes suffering he will show compassion according to the abundance of his faithful love. For he does not enjoy bringing affliction or suffering on mankind.” Lamentations 3:32-33 CSB

We have all dropped a glass container or a flower pot before, right? We have seen the mess of the shattered pieces spread across the floor and forgotten bits and pieces that later end up being stepped on. Our hearts can feel like a shattered flower pot where the pieces are so shattered they are complete dust. This is affliction or suffering. And as humans, it is natural to experience suffering for the time that we are here on this earth. Good news is that it won’t last forever. 

I get it. I’m experiencing suffering right now. I feel as if God is currently collecting the dust from the shards of pottery and trying to make something beautiful out of it. But, here I am, demanding he glue these pieces back together faster; as fast as Amazon Prime delivers to our house. 

With our human experience, suffering makes us realize who we depend on, who we seek for comfort, and where we are looking for healing. No one in the Bible had an easy, comfortable, and breezy faith or life. Think of Job or the Israelites wandering the desert for 40 years or David literally running from death or Paul and the multiple times he was in prison, but found joy every time. There’s plenty more, but every time someone is experiencing suffering or hardships, God shows up. God cleans up the broken pieces of our hearts and takes those pieces to be made into something beautiful; beyond what we can fathom. 

Lamentations 3:32-33 states, “Even if he causes suffering he will show compassion according to the abundance of his faithful love. For he does not enjoy bringing affliction or suffering on mankind” (emphasis mine, CSB). Read that again. 

Suffering by no means is fun to you or me or to God. But this is a part of the Fall. Humans will experience suffering and affliction, but where does it take us? It takes us on a road of healing we never knew we needed. This means being pruned of unholy fruits that produce nothing but malice in our hearts. Our God is compassionate and is the potter. We are the clay. And who are we to tell the potter what to do or ask annoying questions like, “are you done yet? How much Longer?!” Isaiah puts it perfectly: “Woe to the one who argues with his Maker- pone clay pot among many. Does clay say to the one forming it, ‘What are you making’ or does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?” (Isaiah 45:9 CSB) We need to be patient with our Maker, our Potter. We need to trust his process because he knows best.