Monday, December 10 - Refiner’s Fire

But who can endure the day of the coming of God’s messenger, and who can stand when she appears? For she is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap.
~ Malachi 3:

​When I graduated from Western Washington University I considered becoming a “writer” instead of a journalist. I visualized myself as an artist who would live in a run-down apartment above a store in a sketchy part of town and survive on Cup O Noodles and beer until my first best-selling novel was published. Then I’d live in creative luxury. My practical side won that argument. Over the years I took a series of jobs that allowed me to eat reasonably well and live in not-totally-awful places. Eventually I even earned enough to buy a home and eat out whenever I wanted to. But I never produced that best seller.
 
We often forget how crucial fire is to the formation of our world. Precious metals must be refined by fire to reach their full value. Much of the beauty of our earth was formed with the help of volcanos, their fires hot enough to melt stone. When on the island of Hawaii we got to witness a bit of that.
 
It usually takes a lot of heat and pressure to produce the very best in us.

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​#NextGen
SHARE: Sometimes a difficult choice can be like fire: it can be hot and sensitive and even hurt. But when we make the right choice, even when it’s hard, we can learn something new or find out something about ourselves. Ask a loved one to tell you a story about when they faced a hard decision. Listen with love.