Steel Bunks and Prison Trunks

When the temperature on a thermometer reads 118 degrees, there is no need for declarations. Everyone is miserable and the chance of escaping the heat, impossible. You are stuck, rolling up your shirt sleeves and hoping the fan that is used for circulation will somehow manage to face your direction for a few extra minutes before being turned for its next two hour rotation.  

I’m not sure if this is what the Lord had in mind in Proverbs 25:4, but the refining process for me was a literal heat that never ceased until he graced us with the changing of the season. When I found myself putting my foot on my plastic trunk so that I could rest my calf muscle against the cool steel of my prison bunk, I knew I signed up for the wrong camp.

With the exception of a few moments in an air conditioned library that you must wait your turn before entering, relief comes only with careful concentration on eradicating every source of burden within your control. The flies can’t be helped.

Turning to scripture to learn what I must do in order to gain a sense of peace was my only option. It was either find hope, or starve in the consequences of my actions. Romans 5:3-5 declares:

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance character, and character produces hope, and that hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Dear God,

Thank you for your mercy. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for removing my dross, and thank you for steel bunks and prison trunks.

Faithfully yours,

Jenny