The Refiner's Fire

There's a metaphor in Malachi 3:2 that compares the Savior to a refiner of silver, as the fire. It can be read quite literally that Jehovah's presence does not tolerate sin, but modern-day prophets have also spoken of our experiences as a kind of refiner's fire. In 1979, James E. Faust wrote, "In our extremities, it is possible to become born again, born anew, renewed in heart and spirit. We no longer ride with the flow of the crowd. . .".

I am not a refined silver. My greatest impurity is a dependence on the approval of others, and right now I live inside a great furnace [insert joke about either global warming or central heating].

But I have faith that God can turn weaknesses into strengths, and I think that is one reason I live here in this refiner's fire. I think that I have been given a perfectly fitted life: not one so pliable and well-tailored that I can take it for granted, but one that will make of me what I have the potential to become. I need to be one who can march independently of the crowds, and unheeding of unworthy criticism and mockery. I need to be able to parry and riposte, not just outlast the siege of my soul. I think that I live in this house because it is only by being burned that I can learn whence my balm of Gilead.

So it's the first day of training. Don't expect anything but "wax on, wax off" for a while.

I take that back: expect anything you like, and make it my work to practice concentration. Like Obi-Anne just handed me the lightsaber and pulled down the blastshield on my helmet. "Use the Force!" she says, and I'm like "whatever. I can't see anything." and she's all "your eyes are just a distraction." And like forty-five minutes later I'm all: "Just like Beggar's Canyon back home!" and I turn off my targeting computer, because as accurate as some people think they are, and as essential as they think their advice is, we can all have access to something much more reliable - something that doesn't ultimately interfere with our greater purpose - something inside us that IS our greater purpose.

Katie says that the way to strength is love. I think that is wisdom.

 

I don't know the moves, but I got the pajamas.

Speaking of which: way past bedtime.

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