I’m not going to sugar coat it. This last year has been a challenge. I was soooo excited for 2020. I had BIG plans! I scheduled sprint triathlons that I had been training for for months. I finally found a job I ADORED. My husband and I were going to travel. I was going to do volunteer work out of state. I was going to have toilet paper, and clorox wipes, and never have to race people at the grocery store for milk, bread, and eggs. I had plans. BIG PLANS. 2020 had its own plans however.
After Spring break in March, I was refreshed and ready to return to finish the semester, but it had already pretty much ended. After tornadoes cut our school year short in March, and COVID numbers continued to rise, further putting off in-person learning, I was ready to start over in the fall. I was so excited to start our new fall semester, with my BIG plans, my hopes, and my dreams of success. Starting right where we left off! Like the good old days. God had different plans. My “bag of tricks”, as I call it, or my school supplies, has sat on the floor of my closet. My kitchen table has become a makeshift classroom. Leggings and dry shampoo are the new standard school attire. I have been working from home since March. Virtual school they call it. Sounds glorious right, working from home in your pajamas? Wrong. It has been hard to watch teachers, students, parents, and staff struggle. There have been so many adjustments from a traditional learning environment, and I miss seeing those sweet faces in person every day. It has definitely taken its toll mentally and emotionally. At first when we ended in March, I thought “It is going to be okay because we have August.” Then when August started, I once again thought,”It is going to be okay because we have after fall break”. Now it is January, and my mindset is, “This can’t go on forever right God?”. If I told you my faith hasn’t wavered some, and my spirits haven’t been dampened, then I would be lying to you. There are days that are harder than others because hope is sometimes hard to find in dark times. But what I have learned at my kitchen table this past year, is that “Even still, He is good”.
We don’t always enjoy the circumstances that are handed to us, but I believe we grow the most when tested by fire. Not literal fire, duh, but our trials and sufferings. What we make of them. What we learn from them. Romans 5.2-5 says, “...And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” Testing us by adding a little “heat” to our faith. If we trust God, or say we trust God, then our faith shouldn’t change upon our circumstances... right?
In the beginning of the book of Daniel, a story unfolds about a group of young Jewish men whose lives were tested by fire multiple times. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, had taken over Jerusalem, the Kingdom of Judah, and he was looking for Israelites to come into training for three years, then enter into his service. He wanted the best. “Young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand and qualified to serve in the king’s palace (Daniel 1.4). The four men that were chosen were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. The chief official gave them new names: Daniel to Belteshazzar, Hananiah to Shadrach, Mishael to Meshach, and Azariah to Abednego (Daniel 1.7). They were given “knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds” (Daniel 1.17). There were “none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; so they entered the king’s service” (Daniel 1.19). Woo we have made it boys! “In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom” (Daniel 1.20). They had the king’s trust and ear, and it seemed like they were set for life, but God had different plans to show his wonder to them and the people around them.
Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that he wanted his astrologers to interpret without being told the dream. Obviously it is easy for people to read minds... When they failed him, he was angry, and decreed that all the wise men in the land be put to death. That umbrella statement included Daniel and his friends (Daniel 2.12). When Daniel found out, he and his friends prayed for “mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon” (Daniel 2.18). God answered their prayers, and Daniel was able to reveal and interpret the dream to the king. The dream was about a huge statue made of different metals, symbolizing different kingdoms that will rise and fall, but during that time God would be working to set up a kingdom that would “never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people” (Daniel 2.44). The king was amazed and said, “Surely your God is the God of Gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery” (Daniel 2.47). The young men were spared. Daniel was placed in a high position, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were promoted over the province of Babylon because of what God revealed to an unbelieving king, through Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar’s bewilderment didn’t last long, however, because he went on to build an idol of gold to another god.
When the king built this big statue he made a decree that when people “hear the music”, they must fall down and worship the image. “Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace” (Daniel 3.6). The king’s astrologers came forward and poisoned the king’s ear by declaring the Jews as evil and saying how his “golden boys” over Babylon, “neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold you have set up” (Daniel 3.12). Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to question them about their unloyalty. They refused to bow to his god, because they knew who the one true God was. Nebuchadnezzar said, “But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?” (Daniel 3.15). Their reply was impressively confident. “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king,” MY FAVORITE PART --> “But EVEN IF HE DOES NOT, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (Daniel 3.16-18). SNAP. SNAP. HONEY. Pretty gutsy if you ask me. But these guys knew, without a doubt, that no matter their circumstances, God is still God, and God is still good. He has a plan. The bleak outlook of their circumstances weren’t going to change that for them. Their faith had been tested under fire before.
Sure enough, they were thrown into the fire, but they did not burn. They were actually untied and started walking around. When they walked out of the fire, the king’s “staff” gathered around them. “They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them” (Daniel 3.27). This was the second time their lives were used to glorify God, and his power. It wasn’t about them believing God to be good when he provided for them, gave them a job, or put clothes on their back. Their faithfulness demonstrated that when all of that was about to be ripped from them, where did they still stand?
Fire is one of the oldest ways to refine metals. The metals are heated to extreme temperatures in order to remove any impurities, leaving something worth much more than when it began. We are much like metal. We have to endure suffering to be able to come out as something precious and refined, without all the impurities. “I have refined you, but not as silver is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering” (Isaiah 48.10). In a crazy world where it seems like our plans are constantly being adjusted, our lives are rerouted, and our hopes and dreams aren’t what we expected, how does your faith stand the fire? In my life I have learned that “Even if HE does not”, he still is God and has a plan over my life that is better than I could ever imagine or make for myself.
My life verse --> “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
When the headlines are screaming, “put your faith in man and the security of the things in this world”, I urge you to put your faith in a God and a kingdom that will never be destroyed. It will never waiver. It will never fail. It’s fulfillment is everlasting. The Eternal Kingdom. 2 Corinthians 4:18 says, "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." When you are put to the fire, will you be putting your faith in leaders, presidents, family members, husbands, wives, money, kids, or jobs? Or will you be putting your hope in Him?
Because I will be saying, “Even still, He is good”.
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