God's File

            I'm amazed at the lessons God continues to teach me through my children.  A couple weeks ago when I was at home with my son Aaron, he walked up with a pointed, rough object in his hand. He looked up curiously and asked, "Dadda, what's this?"  I told him it was one of mommy's fingernail files.  As you know, kids are seldom content with one answer - especially when it doesn't make sense to them.  A fingernail file?  He stood there, rubbing his fingers over the rough surface, his curious look unabated.  So, I decided to venture further explanation.  "Mommy uses these files to make the rough parts of her fingernails smooth."  My explanation was short and sweet, but rather than appeasing Aaron's curiosity, it actually increased it.  He peered up at me with a doubtful expression, and I knew exactly what he was thinking: "Daddy, how can something so rough possibly make fingernails smooth??"  In my mind's eye, I saw a picture of a man looking up to God with a doubtful look, wondering how his trials could ever produce anything good. Logic tells us that rough experiences make rough people, and this is often true.  For instance, if you rub a file on your hand, it will leave your skin bloody and chafed.  But if you use the file on your fingernails, somehow it leaves them smoother. So, just as it depends on the surface, so it depends on the person.

            For His children, God has ordained trials and suffering for the filing down of prideful resistance and the leveling of sinful tendencies.  Yes it hurts.  How could it not?  I was recently asked to remove a sliver from a friend's foot, and he asked, "Can you make it painless?"  "Sure," I replied.  "...if you don't mind the sliver staying in your foot."  It's like trying to completely remodel your house without tearing out any flooring or walls.  I grew up fishing the East Gallatin river in Bozeman, and over the 25 years I lived there, I saw great changes in the course of the river.  After rainy season, I wouldn't even be able to recognize my old fishing spots!  The mighty force of the water would beat against the banks and erode dirt and rocks, every year forcing its way into new channels.  I thought, "If such force is required to displace mud and stone, what kind of effort must be required to confront greed, pride and selfishness?"  It shouldn't surprise us that the entire angelic and demonic realms are enrolled in the battle for human souls.  Are you aware of this battle?  As a child of God, you should feel the pressure of living for God in a "crooked and depraved generation."  As a pursuer of Christ and his righteousness, you should feel the raging current of immorality, selfishness, greed and laziness pounding against your chest.  If you don't, maybe you're going the wrong way, floating downstream with the course and pattern of this world.  The way to avoid conformity to this world is to sit still when you feel God's file oscillating over your heart.  Don't pull away. Don't complain. Realize that your loving Father is also the sculptor who's forming you for his use.  Trust him. He knows what he's doing.  He knows what he's making.  The end result will be good!