Do You Feel As If You've been Taken Out of the Fire to be thrown in Cold Water?

            The last few days I was tagging along with Dan on a work trip to Indianapolis.  While he had to go to training I had a wonderful time seeing various historical sights.  I figured as self-proclaimed history junkie I could use the time to help research a manuscript I’m writing. They’ll be a couple more blogs about some of my adventures next week.

            On my first day I visited a place called the Conner Prairie Museum.  Which is a place if you’re ever in the area, I would recommend.  There are various attractions inside of the prairie along with actors to make it a “real” experience. 

            As I ventured into the Blacksmith Shop I never thought that it would be a place that I would feel God would really speak to me. However God often uses circumstances and things that do not seem expected.  In the picture above this man was creating a striker hand plate for flint striking.  He would put the steel into the fire and bend it more and more.  Suddenly this blacksmith’s words seemed to be words inspired by the divine for my life, and I thought I’d share this experience for today’s blog.”

            “Once the piece is formed, the steel needs to be hardened.  This is achieved by putting the finished piece into the fire until it glows, and then shocking it by throwing it in the water.  It is only then that the piece will be hard enough that it’ll be fit to use.  If the piece is left in the fire too long or too short it will not harden correctly either.  It has to be thrown in the water at the right time.”

            Maybe to some of you this sounds nuts that I felt this was God using this blacksmith to talk to me, but I did. 

            You see that’s exactly how I’ve felt.  I don’t need to go into details.  We’ve all gone through seasons like this.  But I’ve felt a tad shocked.  In the natural I’m not a patient individual…I work on that.    Hearing how the steel is hardened made perfect sense to me.  It was as if God was saying to me, “It’s okay, I took you out of the fire and threw you into the water.  It’s just a shock to your system, and it makes you ready to be used.” 

Ecclesiastes 3:1 “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven”

               

May you learn along with me to trust God and embrace what He is doing in your life.  It may not be easy, but know He won’t keep you in the fire for too long, and perhaps that thing that shocks you is the thing that will make you ready.  It was a lesson I learned in a barn in the middle of several young kids on their school field trip.  Know God has a way of speaking to you in what seems to be the most unusual places.  Know God truly knows where you are in life, and He knows what He is doing in your life.

God has awesome plans for your life.  Get excited!