While he sat in the ashes

While he sat in the ashes 

by Joel Howard 

"And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes." Job 2:8, ESV

You have taken my family and all I own

Now I scrape off my sores with this clay and stone

I have nothing to be but here and alone

O God of my fathers, O God of my fathers

Ashes of things I once called my own

Ashes of rubble and of fire now gone

As I consider my lowliness before man

As I consider where I am versus where I began

I have grieved and now I grieve some more

I receive this suffering as from You, Lord

I do not control You so I cannot say 

Why sometimes blessing and sometimes cursedness is my fate

Before you I tremble and also lament

Before You I groan and before You I wait