If you read my two prior blogs, you know that it was hot when I was out West. I arrived in Henderson, NV, on Thursday, July 10. We loaded everything my niece Kenzie’s was taking in a U-Haul truck on Friday and drove to Arizona and moved her in on Saturday. The Las Vegas, NV, weather news reported a temperature of 117 degrees on moving day. Chris, my sister-in-law, saw it was 118 in Henderson on Friday!
Every time we stepped out from air conditioning into the sun meant getting hit by the heat. The joke (and truth) is that it is a dry heat. An oven is still hot even if it is dry heat! Does 52 degrees seem different than 25? That’s how much hotter 117 degrees is than 90. 90 degrees is already hot!
Don’t feel sorry for me, though! We got finished packing early and my brother had a nice pool in which to cool off. They even took me to the Las Vegas Strip that night. The temperatures had come down closer to 100!
It was record-setting hot on my road trip, and I had lots of time to think about the heat. Heat in the Bible can be destructive, but it is more often a means of transformation. Heat is a means to test things. Heat purifies. Heat transforms substances by melting and allowing them to be molded. Heat is used to temper metals and make them much more useful. The thought came to me that the tempering process applies to our spiritual lives as well.
I thought tempering hardened metals. I believed a sword, for example, would be harder if you tempered it. I was wrong. Tempering doesn’t make a sword harder; tempering makes it stronger. Hardened metals break more easily.
The heat in life that hits us can also make our hearts stronger or harder.
Tempering’s usefulness isn’t realized in the heat, though. It is the process of cooling the metal that makes the metal stronger. The heat just prepares it to become stronger.
My trip to the desert Southwest was hot, but it was wonderful. The biggest benefit is the impact it’s had on me since I’ve gotten back and recovered from it.
This is the current sign in front of my church.
Don’t feel sorry for me, though! We got finished packing early and my brother had a nice pool in which to cool off. They even took me to the Las Vegas Strip that night. The temperatures had come down closer to 100!
It was record-setting hot on my road trip, and I had lots of time to think about the heat. Heat in the Bible can be destructive, but it is more often a means of transformation. Heat is a means to test things. Heat purifies. Heat transforms substances by melting and allowing them to be molded. Heat is used to temper metals and make them much more useful. The thought came to me that the tempering process applies to our spiritual lives as well.
I thought tempering hardened metals. I believed a sword, for example, would be harder if you tempered it. I was wrong. Tempering doesn’t make a sword harder; tempering makes it stronger. Hardened metals break more easily.
The heat in life that hits us can also make our hearts stronger or harder.
Tempering’s usefulness isn’t realized in the heat, though. It is the process of cooling the metal that makes the metal stronger. The heat just prepares it to become stronger.
My trip to the desert Southwest was hot, but it was wonderful. The biggest benefit is the impact it’s had on me since I’ve gotten back and recovered from it.
This is the current sign in front of my church.
If you feel like you been going through the fires the trials of this life bring, maybe it is time to take a moment and chill. With a little rest you may very well come through even stronger than before. And when it comes to strengthening rather than hardening our hearts, there is no better person to chill than with Jesus.
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