“The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts”.
— Proverbs 17:3
Simple. Beautiful. Sobering.
The simple elegance of a Hebrew proverb - crucibles and furnaces are designed for the purification of precious metals.
The beautiful imagery - our minds conjure up scenes of noble blacksmiths hard at work heating and hammering.
The sober realization - this is the way of the Lord when it comes to our hearts.
Now, to be sure, it is not the only way of the Lord in the tending of human hearts. The Lord is also our comforter, protector, and provider. He heals and binds up wounded souls. As we’ve been examining the Parable of the Prodigal Son, we’ve considered God the Father as the welcomer of broken and contrite hearts.
All true.
Now, to the consolation of God as comforter, we add the challenge of God as tester. This is equally true, and (perhaps surprisingly) equally loving. Our Heavenly Father cares for us far too much to let warped desires and bent trajectories fester and twist within us. Like a caring parent cradling a child with a skinned knee on His lap… first he hugs, then he scrubs the wound with soap.
To be clear - I’m not claiming any special knowledge or spiritual insight by claiming that our present season of quarantine is a test from the Lord. Rather, I think all of us can observe what is happening in our own lives and easily conclude - this is a test for me.
Speaking autobiographically, I’ve been knocked off my rhythm. My daily and weekly routine, crafted and solidified over decades, has suddenly, dramatically, and forcibly changed.
I don’t quite feel myself.
Which makes sense I suppose, if we really are homo liturgicus (the liturgical creature).
In the heat of this crucible season, all sorts of unpleasant and unsightly things are bubbling to the surface in my life. My self-narrative (the story I tell myself about who I am) is crumbling in the face of new and incontrovertible evidence. Here’s what I’ve seen thus far:
My self-narrative of easy-going flexibility has been disrupted and exposed me to be a person of rigid, deeply ingrained habits.
My self-narrative of generosity has been disrupted and exposed me to be a person with subtle, but unyielding selfishness.
My self-narrative of gracious love has been disrupted and exposed me to be a person who is basically annoyed almost all the time.
I could keep going… but you get the picture. My secret vanities and my private selfishness are being brought to the surface in very unsightly, unbecoming-to-a-pastor ways. I am not a fan.
But in the long run, I trust that it’s good. It stings like soap on a skinned knee.
Friends, why does the Lord do this to us? Why does the Lord test us?
Because who you are when you’re alone is who you really are. Because who you are when you’re under stress is who you really are. This is the wisdom of the crucible: that when we are isolated and under pressure, all the worst parts of us come out. When these ugly things come out of us, we have a choice - we can blameshift, or we can offer them to the Lord for purification.
A word on blame shifting: Y’all, it’s the oldest defense in the book. Literally - Genesis 3. The woman made me do it. The serpent made me do it. Coronavirus made me do it. Can we agree that, in the stressful, uncomfortable days ahead, blame shifting should have no place amongst us? Let me not be too quick to excuse my behavior and let myself off the hook.
Rather, let me be quick to do what the crucible is meant to do in me, which is to lead me to deeper repentance and heart transformation. The Lord is testing my heart, and - dear friends - He may be testing your heart as well. This testing is not a punishment for past sin, nor an evaluation of spiritual performance, but rather a crucible, furnace-like testing that is designed to lead us to more deeply and fully repent by exposing sin that we didn’t even know was there.
So in the days ahead, let’s embrace life in the crucible and allow the Lord who loves us to test our hearts. What we see will not be pleasant. But if we allow it to drive us to our knees and to more fully repent, then we will discover a newfound joy and appreciation for the Gospel - for the Lord who tests is also the Lord who forgives.
In the Father’s love,
Dan
