Refined? Not yet

Yesterday, out of the blue, a friend called to tell me he was praying for me and in his prayer time, his reflection turned to the word, "Refine."


In other words, God gave him the word "refine" about little ol' me. As in, I'm being refined by my current circumstances and life right now.


Let's explore this idea.


In Zechariah, we read: "“Sword, get moving against my shepherd, against my close associate!” Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies. “Kill the shepherd! Scatter the sheep! The back of my hand against even the lambs! All across the country”—God’s Decree— “two-thirds will be devastated and one-third survive. I’ll deliver the surviving third to the refinery fires. I’ll refine them as silver is refined, test them for purity as gold is tested. Then they’ll pray to me by name and I’ll answer them personally. I’ll say, ‘That’s my people.’ They’ll say, ‘God—my God!’”
In Job, we read: "We all know how silver seams the rocks, we’ve seen the stuff from which gold is refined, We’re aware of how iron is dug out of the ground and copper is smelted from rock. Miners penetrate the earth’s darkness, searching the roots of the mountains for ore, digging away in the suffocating darkness. Far from civilization, far from the traffic, they cut a shaft, and are lowered into it by ropes. Earth’s surface is a field for grain, but its depths are a forge Firing sapphires from stones and chiseling gold from rocks. Vultures are blind to its riches, hawks never lay eyes on it. Wild animals are oblivious to it, lions don’t know it’s there. Miners hammer away at the rock, they uproot the mountains. They tunnel through the rock and find all kinds of beautiful gems. They discover the origins of rivers, and bring earth’s secrets to light."


And finally, for balance I include a New Testament (1 Peter) reading: "These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."


The idea is a consistent one. What the person (or kingdom) is going through, God allows in the same way gold or silver is refined. I believe I speak for most of us when I say that I would like that process to be an easy one, one in which a bit of the flame is okay, but let's get this over with quickly, God.
The problem is his ideas and his ways are not our ways and sometimes the refining is a long one. Sometimes the purification process just doesn't work and we have to go through it again (and again, and again, and again and oh, you get it I suspect). 


God penetrates our darkness, searches for the root of the problem, sin, mistake and digs away. Far from the known, farm from the evidence, far from it all, God cuts the shaft and lowers the help. The fire is lit, the bad is melted away and through the tunnel (of love?), we emerge.


That's life's process. That's the way to the beauty. Some call it beauty for or from ashes. I get it. I am it.


Refining. Seems like my advanced age would mean the process was nearing the end. Perhaps it is. 
But ultimately, it might not end till I do, if you get my drift. I wish it weren't so. My intellect, my mirrors say it is.


Refined. Not yet.