"Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, 'What are you making?'"
(Isaiah 45:9 ESV)
I love cricket and of all the forms of cricket available, for me test cricket remains peerless. It’s the unfolding drama over four or five days. How one good innings or a distinguished over can turn the game on its head. Or an unlikely seventh wicket stand clutch victory from the jaws of defeat. It is the detours, twists and turns of an evolving novel, with its moments of suspense and intensity and vast pages of waiting.
In many ways, the journey of life resembles test cricket. We learn so much through the process of going through, yet we ache for and attempt to hasten the destination. Scratching, taking action, fretting to strike out, only to be caught in the slips.
I have learnt that life would be more pleasurable and peaceful if we embraced it as an undulating test match. If we accept that it is a slow journey, requiring patience and wisdom. God has taught me that there is purpose and beauty in the process, however painful. For it is in the process that we are changed. In the process we learn, we are broken, our hearts are softened and we are transformed by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 1:2).
I have walked the wilderness of process these past three years recovering from burnout. A three year journey of recovery, rebuilding and restoration. No quick fixes. Just trusting the process, step by step yielding to the hand of the potter – even on the days and weeks where progress evades us and we feel we even fall backwards. At one such moment on my journey, a dear Christian lady reminded me of the wisdom of patience and counselled me through Shakespeare’s observation that healing comes but by degrees.
To follow process requires trust, courage and humility. It is a dying to self and a decision to live in vulnerability and uncertainty. Yet this is an absolutely necessary position. For if we are willing to surrender, willing to be patient and take our hands off the wheel, we discover that the insecure place gives way to the most secure place.
For to resist is to lose out on the skill of the ultimate potter, the Lord our Maker, whose work in your life will leave you in awe.
Allow the Lord to be your test cricket captain. Let Him set your field, select your teammates, even take your wicket or let you drop a catch. If you do, He will “make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert" (Isaiah 43:19 ESV) and the once precarious position become the richest and most secure pasture there can be.
Dear Readers, I would love to know if this post resonates with any of you, or hear your own stories of how the Lord has worked beauty through a process of going through difficulties in your life. Thanks for your engagement.