Refiner's Gift

Well, Monarch is in shut down mode so Wes is keeping busy at the pit screening sand for his dad. He enjoys being out in the pit by himself and I'm sure it has nothing to do with it being so quiet and peaceful out there compared to home!?!

On my days off I bring him lunch and we sit and chat for awhile as we share a picnic lunch (so much for his quiet time). It's amazing walking in the sand pit because it is exactly like it sounds. The sand is so thick and soft all you would need is a nice body of water and you could have an amazing beach close to home. I bring our lawn chairs out for our lunch time and it's so funny because even before you sit down the chair will sink a couple of inches into the sand.

But, Wes is right, it is very peaceful.

Part of Wes' job is to load sand into the screener and then the machine pushes it through keeping the soft fine sand and pulling out all the larger stones. This past Friday I stood and watched the screener for quite a while trying to figure out how in the world the screener does its job. I'm sure in theory it's all quite simple, but somehow when I watch it in action it just causes me to scratch my head.
It seems that way with life sometimes. No one will fly through life without being shaken and stirred up, we will never understand everything and we will be challenged so to speak to become more refined and ever closer to the image of God. Something that will only come to completion in Heaven.

We sometimes feel as though we are tossed about here and there, whether by design or choice doesn't seem to matter anymore. This is our life, sometimes there are reasons why things happen, sometimes there are no clear answers, but, God guides this time of our living, if we allow Him too.

He won't stop us from having to go through this process, everything is set to go. We are constantly making new choices adjusting our lives as we go and having to live with choices made. Life will run it's course and how we choose to follow through in this living is important. God won't protect us from every bump and bruise, but he will be the first hand that reaches down to help us through, if we allow Him too.

Our prayers become stronger and deeper as we go through these times, we don't hesitate to ask for strength because it is through these moments of struggle of day to day living that we realize that we have control over nothing. We don't hesitate to cry out to Him because He is the only one who truly understands. We fall down before Him in ways we never thought possible before, because we know that in His presence He deserves our complete surrender. God is in control and He will be the driving force in the end result, if we allow Him too.

We no longer stand alone, because we stand on the foundation that is Jesus Christ. We are united with Him and we stand proud. Our souls rise to the mountain tops and it is there that we shout His name for the world to hear because there is no other name that can take us through this life but His. He is waiting to be a part of this life we have here, if we allow Him too.

And when the tears fall and the discouragement hits, when the fears threaten to strangle you or when the darkness seems overwhelming. These are the moments that God shines the brightest, if we allow Him too.

He is pulling away at the hardness of our hearts. Shaking out the huge barriers that we have hung onto so tightly thinking that they have made us stronger. He tenderly throws them to the side and points to the beauty that can be, if we allow Him too.

And when we feel that there is nothing left, that our strength, our hope, our life is gone. He often becomes silent...waiting...pouring out his love as a healing balm on all our hurts and fears. He doesn't need to say another word, His promises and His actions have given us the power to move ahead, if we allow Him too.

He knows the pain and humiliation of this life. After all, He's walked in our shoes. He's loved and laughed, He's cried and mourned, He's lived and experienced death. He knew He was going to die and though He begged for the cup to pass by Him, yet deep down He knew it had to happen. Why else would he sweat drops of blood? He knew.

"And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground." Luke 22:44

We know, deep down we all know we're dying. It's not just those select few with a death sentence handed down by a doctor. It's all of us. We have no choice of living or dying, that's already set in stone. We can only choose how our life will look up too and including our death.

We have a choice to allow God to run through this life with us. To include God in our walk down death's alley, knowing that whatever our end looks like in this life does not matter. What matters is if we have made the right choices...and if we have...we know with full assurance that when we die we walk straight into the Father's arms.

So, all this shaking and refining that God has us going through in this life does have a purpose. Some days it would be easier if He would leave the purifying for a different day, but then, in the silence would we even know He was there?

Not our will Father, but yours be done...

Loading the screener

In it goes!

Wes at work!

Checking the screener

Screening the stones out of the sand


Clean beautiful sand!

"Sit here while I go over there and pray." He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me."
Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." Matthew 26:36-39