Without affliction, we often don't change our direction. As David wrote, "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey Your word" (Psalm 119:67). In other words, God will allow an affliction to grace our lives to move us closer to His life. And even if we are personally responsible for our own afflictions, God still uses it to mold us into His image. You see, He is never surprised when the clay jumps off the wheel. In fact, He allows us to do so, knowing the fall will dislodge pride from our soul. And when the clumps of clay that we are, finds ourselves on the floor, His scarred Hands pick us back up and rest us again on His wheel; to work out some lumps that weren’t dislocated from the fall. And after several “spins,” His hands begin to make us into a replica of Him. “Then I went down to the Potter’s wheel, and there he was, making something at the wheel. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to make” (Jeremiah 18:3-4).It is because we are marred that Jesus Christ had to be scarred. He the Potter, melted into the clay on His own wheel to become what we are; yet He lived without succumbing to the lumps of sin, entrusting His life into the hands of the Father even to the point of becoming sin. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (II Corinthians. 5:21).Thankfully, He took us into Himself, molding our dusty frame into the character of His name. He did it for us because He knew that we as clay are not capable of forming ourselves. So whether affliction happens to us from man or even if that affliction is caused by our own hands, it matter's not to a God who always has a good plan. And His plan for us is that we become more like Jesus.