So it is with us. By sin we are misshapen. The image of God in us has been deformed, and the disfigurement has hardened in the clay. As long as we are content with our shape, the attempts of the potter to refashion us and to transform our ugliness will seem very threatening and frightening to us. Recall what we said earlier about knowledge of God and knowledge of self going hand in hand. But, as we begin to realize what we really are and what we might be, the breaking which is necessary for transformation, while still painful, is no longer threatening. As we grow a bit more we even come to desire His breaking because of the longing to become like him which the Lord of love has implanted deeply in us. We want the Cross because we have glimpsed the glory to which it leads. We can understand what made Paul say: “I long to be freed from this life and to be with Christ, for that is the far better thing” (Ph 1:23).

When the Well Runs Dry: Prayer Beyond the Beginnings