Don't fear the heat by Jane

No one likes to feel the heat, especially me.  Parenting life is crazy enough -- taking care of kids, shuttling to and from classes, marriage issues, keeping house -- it's enough to just make it through the week.  But, throw on another trial or two, and watch it all come to a boiling head.

As I was standing over the pasta water tonight, I was struck by how cool the hundreds of air molecules, released from the rising heat, looked.  What are those things anyway?  Air molecules that get released from broken water bonds, and escape as vapor.  Without the heat, this change wouldn't happen.  Without the heat, water sitting in my pot wouldn't do anything for me.  It would be useless for cooking at least, and the noodles wouldn't be edible.  And everyone would go hungry.

Heat is a good thing.  It breaks apart the hard things in your life, so that the very thing which needs to be broken, gets broken.  And it's in the breaking that you become useful.  Without the heat, we wouldn't change and become effective in doing what we were meant to do, or meant to become!

When James talked about considering "it pure joy" when you faced trials of many kinds, he had this kind of result in mind.  Suffering the heat of life produces exactly what the Potter is after -- soft, moldable, broken up clay that can be made into something useful, purposeful, and fruitful.

So don't run from the heat.  Let it break you.  It's in the breaking that we become life-giving, purposeful and a blessing to those who need it.