We all are on a journey in growing into a full relationship and dependence on Jesus Christ. As we grow older the years, we learn that we become the person that is orchestrated by God, often recognized as we look back at our journey. I am the person I am today because of the trials and painful experiences of my past. God is the Potter. Sometimes God uses the gentle hands of a potter on the potter’s wheel, and sometimes he uses a hot flame of a raging fire with a hammer and anvil to shape and mold me.
We all have been through these trials, and we all hope to grow stronger in our faith, love and trust in God. My wife and I have experienced 20 years of trial because of our daughter’s chronic condition. And you know what? All three of us have confessed the same victory: We would not have changed a thing, because of what God has done in us.
I served a tour in Vietnam as a young man, a time during which my soul was invaded by an evil and senseless world. The moral injury that I experienced and the vitriol that greeted me upon my return challenged the very core of who I was, and furthermore I did not know Christ as my Lord and Savior to guide me. My only response was to avoid any acknowledgement of my being in Vietnam and to never talk about my pain.
My story is about God pursuing me and giving me the courage to face my pain and to make me whole. Today, my greatest joy is to tell my story to others in hopes that they will be strengthened to give their lives more fully to God. The unhealthy messages of growing up in a dysfunctional family, the anguish of experiencing an evil and senseless world, and the uncertainty and heartache of watching your sick child suffer without healing – all things are redeemable in God’s Hands.
Chester
The Divine Potter 
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