Smart cars, smart phones, smart houses, fast food, food delivery apps, grocery pick-up. We live in a world of right now. We learn that when we want something, it should happen in just a few moments. And when that flow of "right now" is disrupted, we complain.

Because of this, our everyday life occurrences become a need for being pleased and pleased right now. I will be the first to tell you I am the person at the red light who will blow the horn just seconds after it turns green when the car ahead of me doesn't gas it. [I am working on the whole road rage thing.] Anyways, if any of you are like I am, I do not want to have to go through anything that's going disrupt my plan of comfort because after all, this is my life. I know what I want and I want to be happy. But what if I told you some of the most beautiful things God does in your life requires you to go through some things and wait a few minutes. Yep, I am talking about waiting my friends and sometimes that means waiting in the fire. In a world where I can pull up answers to any problem in seconds, God says pull up a seat. Come wait a while. Anybody else been there? Waiting?

Maybe today you are so heavily burdened and you say, "Fallon, you don't know what I have been through and how long I have been going through it. I have tried this whole trusting God/waiting on Him and look where it has gotten me. I am a mess." Friend, can I just encourage you for a second? I am not going to tell you the usual "God is going to get you through it. He's a way maker. His burden is light and yoke is easy." While all those things are very true and I pray against the calluses around your heart, I know it is not what you need to hear. Why? Because I have been there. And on certain days, I find myself there again too. What I want to encourage you with today is something I have lived by for the past few years now and I want to share it with you. But first, put down the fast-paced world and all the things screaming at you right now and just….pull up a seat.

You might be going through some things today that are choices you have made. Maybe you made some terrible choices and now you find yourself in a mess you cannot get out of. Maybe you are going through something that had nothing to do with you. It was just something that happened. But in a world where we can Google every answer, you don't need Google for this one: God's not done with you yet, my friend. I know it looks like a mess and maybe it has been a mess for ages but I know one thing to be true from the very pits I have been in, without the mess there is no message. Your life has such a value on it that it is priceless. Your life is so valuable that God, who is far above all creation, decided to put Himself in human form and call Him Jesus, His Son. Your life is so valuable that the very God who created you from the dust allowed His Son to come here to the very same world we live in and die a tortuous death He did not deserve. For you. For me. For the sinner. For the giver. For the saint. For the drug addict. For the prisoner. For US. He loved US. It took me quite some time to even turn my head to acknowledge that. You know why? Because I was going through some things I did not think I deserved and I was going through some things I created. Things I did deserve because of the person I was choosing to be and what I was choosing to do. If you are at place like I was, this was my thought: "That's cool and all Jesus did what He was supposed to and died on the cross. I know he suffered but I did not volunteer for this. He did. He chose that life. I did not." That is right my friend. Jesus CHOSE to suffer so that we might have everlasting life.

I don't pretend to know your story or say one is less than the other but can I just pull up a chair beside you this morning and tell you that you are not alone? I am praying for you. I am pleading God gives you comfort and delivers you from this pain, but I am also going to tell you some truth: God makes no mistakes. That's right, no mistakes. And even better than that, He allows everything to happen. The good, bad, ugly, heartbreaking, life-changing, all of it. When the devil laughs at you because you cannot get out of that hole you are in, God allows it. I know, you are thinking to yourself this isn't helping anything. It is probably making it worse. I tell you that because when you change your perspective, and I am going to help you do that, you'll see why God says "not yet" when the world says "right now".

I know absolutely nothing about pottery. I am about as artistically inclined as my dog digging in the dirt to create a hole to lay in. God did not add that in my recipe when He created me from the dust. Anyways, I did a little research on pottery because there is a verse I feel can relate to you and what you are going through. Why? Because I have read this verse for years over and over again when I feel forgotten by God. I read it when I feel He's had me waiting too long or when I feel He's left me in the fire too long. So please, pull out your bible or I will let you for just a second get your phone out and Google Jeremiah 18 so you can follow along. I am using the New Living Translation because I think it is the most relatable and easiest text to follow. It says from verse 1, "The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 'Go down to the potter's shop, and I will speak to you there.' So I did as He told me and found the potter working at his wheel. But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over." Now, I don't know about you, but it is pretty clear to me what God was telling Jeremiah. Sometimes the Lord crushes us when our lives are not going so well and sometimes He crushes our hearts to mold them into something beautiful He can use.

So as I went on researching pottery, I found out that clay has to bake, or more like scorch, in fire. So this soft, innocent piece of clay from the earth must be put in a fire to become its finished masterpiece. I almost passed out when I found out a kiln or clay oven for easier terms, gets to 1800 degrees. I don't know about you but today I was sweating and it was only 90 degrees! But what I found most important about this was not that it just has to be over a fire that's approximately 1800 degrees, but just 100 degrees hotter at 1900 degrees it begins to melt. So that means the artisan has to know the exact moment to remove the clay from the fire so it is not ruined.

Friend, I don't know what your story is, how long you have been struggling, or how bad it is, but let me say again, I am sincerely praying for you. I mean this with all the love in my heart when I say this: Don't try to leave the fiery oven before it is time. Don't doubt your Artisan who perfectly created you exactly as He wanted you. I know He has you in the fire right now and you are Googling how to get out and you are blowing the horn because you are ready to go, but don't do it. God's not done with you yet. I know the heat is up and you feel like you are melting but I promise you God knows the exact moment to take you out before you melt. You might be sweating. You might even be burning, but my friend, your Artisan will not let you melt. Instead, just take a moment and acknowledge Him. Ask Him what it is He wants to do in your life for you to become all that He already has planned for you. I am praying for you. Take a seat and let God have His way with you. When there was nothing else I could do for my life anymore, He did it all. So as I sit beside you in the fire today, I will hold your hand and say, "God's not done with us yet."