Refining The Steel

Sweetness was sick yesterday, so we missed church. This was unfortunate, since we've found ourselves a place where the teaching is fantastic. Nonetheless, you don't bring a sick toddler into a nursery, and you don't bring a sick toddler in to listen to the sermon with you; so where does that leave you? At home. To make up for our slackitude, here are some thoughts:

Ps 66:10- "For Thou hast tried us, O God, Thou hast refined us as silver is refined"
Is 48:10- "Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction"

Meaning what, exactly? Most of us hold true, as I once did, that the trials we face make us stronger, tougher, more ready to face the next set of hard times. Any good engineering (good=mechanical) geek will tell you that this is what happens to steel. The more brutal the manufacturing process, the more heat followed by sudden, stressful quenching, the more pounding, bending, rolling, peening, the stronger the material becomes. Alas, it is stressed, brittle, more prone to sudden failure. Weary, one could say, the same way that hard times feel a soul feeling weary, not stronger. It's not the answer.
The answer is not to resist, but to be malleable. Few things are more malleable than pure silver. It melts easily, works with little resistance, and as a final product is brilliant and rust proof. OK, you have to clean tarnish, but you get the idea. Life can put bigger challenges in front of us than can be overcome by gumption, strength, wits, or moxie, leaving us broken. God wants us to be pure, malleable, and let him do his work in our lives. He provides the strength of the structure, we just clad his church, hopefully with something remarkable. If we are not pure, as the second verse indicates, the fires of life get hotter and hotter, until we either become malleable to his will or broken by the trial. Don't fight trials on your own strength, rely on His.