A few semesters ago, I took a class in ceramics. We worked with different types of clay, experimenting with different styles and forms to create unique, beautiful and purposeful works of art. As I learned about the clay crafting process, I also learned a lot about myself, and I discovered that I’m basically a clay jar in my own right.

You see, before I can even begin to make the clay into a work of art, I have to give it a lot of grief via a special process termed “wedging”. This is essentially clay bullying. I take my lump of clay and throw it down on the table. Repeatedly, I smack it around with the heels of my hands. So, let’s put ourselves in the clay’s position. (I know, I’m asking you to emote alongside an inanimate object, but if we can do it for "The Brave Little Toaster," we can do it for a lump of clay.) Now, if the clay had feelings, it stands to reason that it would probably hate me right about now. After all, I’ve been repeatedly abusing it without any apparent reason as to why I might be doing so. If the clay could talk to me, it would probably say something along the lines of, “Hey, what the heck?”

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What the clay doesn’t realize is that I’m preparing it for something even more “jarring” than being smacked around for a bit. Wedging is crucial to the ceramic process because it gets out all of the air bubbles trapped within the clay. Later, the clay will be fired in a kiln, exposing it to thousand degree temperatures, and if there are any bubbles remaining in the clay as it heats, they will cause it to explode. (Yeah, not a good day to be clay. You can stop relating at this point if it’s too painful.)

We get this, don’t we? Life smacks us around a lot. Your life may seem like it’s going one way, and then suddenly, everything is scrapped and you find yourself grasping for a new idea, a new direction. Or, maybe you feel like you’re in the kiln right now, with pressure building and heat rising, and you think you just may actually explode. You even may find yourselves shaking an angry fist at the sky, begging God for an answer to the age old question of “Hey, what the heck?”

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The good news is that we’re not finished; we are works in progress. A lump of clay must go through many hardships, included but not limited to smacking, pounding, twisting, turning, firing, glazing and more firing before it can become what it first started out to be. In the same way, we are continually being molded and refined by the Master Artist and Potter. It is often a very painful process, and at the time, the challenges we face may seem pointless, but it is all a part of making us stronger as God shapes us into the people He wants us to be.