Patience

Learning to throw was hard. It took a lot of time and practice. Life has taught me that anything we accomplish that is worthwhile is pretty hard. Nothing really comes easy. At least that has been my experience. But as I reflect on my pottery experience, I think learning to have patience has been even more challenging than learning to throw was. 

We like to have things now. We like to be able to do things now. We want things to work now. And we want things to be ready now. To think that making a pot on the wheel and then seeing it through all the way to the finish can take up to two weeks is a little bit frustrating. I mean, I want to make it today. If you are like me, by the time ten days has gone by, you have already forgotten what it was that you were doing ten days ago.  

So what I found was that it was really hard to be patient. And patience is really important because if the piece doesn’t dry completely, when you put it in temperatures of 1500 plus degrees...the water turns to steam and the piece explodes. It can take several days for that piece to dry out to the point that it is ready for the fire. And when you have produced something and are excited about seeing it finished...several days can seem like a really, really long time. So naturally…I rushed it a few times. And I got to open my kiln to pots that had exploded everywhere. Not much use now. It doesn’t take too many of those journeys to make you realize that it is worth the wait. 

And the thing is that the piece can look ready all over...especially on the surface. But inside somewhere, there is still a place that isn’t ready for the fire. That one place that isn’t ready yet can cause the explosion. And sometimes, we think we are ready for the next thing. Maybe the people close to us even think we are ready for the next thing. But God is still calling for patience...and it’s frustrating. I don’t want to be patient. I’m ready. It’s time. I’m finished here. 

But our Father knows something we don’t know. He sees something we don’t see. The surface may look ready...but inside there is some transforming that still needs to happen. Some changing that needs to take place. And He knows that the heat of the fire is going to bring that imperfection out. So the inside is not quite ready. It’s a recipe for an explosion right now. It needs a little more time to develop. It needs patience. 

And this is why we have to trust Him. He sees what we don’t see. He understands what we don’t understand. He knows when the piece can handle the fire. And He won’t let His work go in the fire before it’s ready...because He loves His work that much.