Dust: What Is in A Name?

Some would ask who Dust is. The answer might surprise you. It surprised the heck out of me as well.

Dust was born out of recognized hubris — something a friend of mine was kind and sincere enough to point out. At first, I was dismissive of the notion that I was prideful. It took a little over three days of close self-examination to realize that, lo and behold, she was correct. I found that I actively enjoyed telling people that I had written seven books. Looking back now, I know it stemmed from a feeling of not being enough as I am and wanting others to think better of me.

Now, by His grace, I am what I am. I may mention it if I think the person would benefit from the reading, but more than likely not. I have found that He is enough for me.

That is true today, at least. The reality is that each day is a new struggle. Just when you think you’ve got everything figured out — boom — struggle rears its ugly head. It might look like a dead car, a fight with a spouse, or maybe even getting laid off from your job, but it always comes.

The prosperity gospel would say that it comes because your walk with God is not free from outward sin. I — and the Bible — will tell you that God prunes the ones He loves and calls His. We must go through heartache and pain if God is truly working in us. To hurt is to feel, to feel is to learn compassion, and to learn compassion is to know Love.

Those who are not troubled are not in God’s will. I say it plain as Dust: we will always be challenged so that we can be shaped into our highest version of Yeshua in us. The mortal must clothe itself in immortality, that we may cast off these temporary sheaves and transcend as He did. We are all being shaped into Him, from one degree of glory to another. He is All in All.

He answers all prayers — just not always in the way we understand. He is present with us in every moment. We are never alone. Even in the darkest night, when our sins pile against us and we wail in lament over the heaviness of the burden — we are never alone, for He is there, carrying the load with us. He comforts. He soothes the weary-hearted. He heals the oppressed with freedom. He is All in All.

I consider myself Dust before Him and before you. For I once betrayed the Name. I once elevated another in His place and had the boldness to say it to His face. I, the scum of the earth for loving a woman more than Him, was broken as a plowshare is broken when reforged.

And oh, the praise — the radiant, resplendent, all-encompassing Glory once witnessed — changed we become, marked by the altar’s coal. Do I lift to the Name as nothing but the basest of earth — Dust.