A number of years ago I was taught the art of using a pressure cooker to can vegetables.  My unlikely teacher was the hermit we had inherited when we moved to the mountain top farm to begin New Direction.  Will had lived on the property for 20 years in a shack.  My canning lesson was in his kitchen; where once were walls painted white they now were glazed with a slimy coat of brown from years and years of cigarette smoke.

            Nevertheless Will was an excellent teacher.  He took great care in teaching me how to safely use a pressure canner.  We prepared our first batch of tomatoes and placed the jars in the cooker, tightly screwed on the lid and turned the heat up as high as it could go.  We then waited until a stream of steam began emerging from the hole on top.  It was then Will taught me about the round weight he would put over the hole and how to begin listening for chhhhhhhh…….chhhhhhhh……..chhhhhhhhhh. Once that began he set the timer for however long the various vegetables would need to process in the heat.

               As followers of Jesus Christ we will have various seasons of being in a pressure cooker.  James says “Consider it PURE joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything.”  James 1: 2-4 

                Scripture tells us that God uses fire to refine us like gold or silver. Whenever we are in the fiery furnace, it is important to remember whose hand operates the thermostat.  It is not the visible person or situation that determines the heat.  Nor is it Satan.  The Lord is sovereign. We need not ponder for very long why we are in the furnace. Obsessing on the situation will bring no benefit.   Nor is it good to consistently attempt to reach for the door to exit.  Best to meditate on the reality that what Satan means for evil the Lord will use for good.  We need to be as still and trusting as those jars in the canner, trusting the One Who knows what He desires to accomplish “as we are in process in the heat.”    Just as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were not only unharmed by the flames as they endured the heat with the Lord right there in the circle of the fire with them, their bindings were burned off as well. Such will be the same with us. Yucky dross which has resided in the hidden recesses of our soul will rise to the surface to be scooped off and discarded.

                     The next time you find yourself in the tight, uncomfortable squeeze of a fiery trial don’t forget the Lord is carefully orchestrating this process.   He is desiring to create wine……not whine… Chhhhhhhh………….chhhhhhhhhhh………..chhhhhhhhhhh…………..chhhhhhhhh……….chhhhhhhhhhh  

                       Endure with joy; be patient in the suffering; for your Father is using this for something good of which you may have no understanding.   He knows exactly what He is doing.  We can trust Him.