LOVE AND BLEACH IS ALL YOU NEED

This is not my best day: I woke and google-searched, "Can you bleach granite counter-tops?" Apparently you can, as well as the handles of all the doors and anything that cannot move. I am holding in tension (huge tension) God's loving words to me yesterday and cleaning up after the stomach flu in our home. God is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8) but how can I hear Him when my world is not the same yesterday, today and forever. Family members get sick (plural), sons almost break ankles, others move across the country; lives change, we change, people change. He reminds me, "I the Lord do not change." Malachi 3:6

So, I must sit here as He sits with me and refines and purifies me. Why didn't someone warn me that the fire would be so hot, so all-consuming, so untamable. Is it true that the Refiner purifies gold in a fire until He sees His own image? I do not want lessons from Hebrews where God reminds me, "Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." Hebrews 12:29; I want to be taught by a good Shepherd who promises, "I came that you might have life and have it  to the full." John 10:10 

This fire, this kingdom and this abundant life are all connected. He is the way, the truth and the life; to have Him I must be cleansed of all that is not Him. For His kingdom to be at hand, near me, in me, there would need to be a house fire where God takes all that does not give thanks, and worship Him and burns it to the ground. He creates space in me with His holy fire that He might come and dwell within, but the way He makes room is so uncomfortable. Oh, that is suffering, trials, challenges- these break us open and burn away the unholy so that we can receive this unshakable kingdom. All that can be shaken in us will be shaken so that He might be worshipped.

What is a mere mortal to do in such cases? Make applesauce.

This will heal my family members and ground me. All is not lost; love is all I need. God's love carries us when we cannot go on: clean one more bathroom, soothe one more child, let go of one more attachment. He will remain the same, He will not change. His love is my rock, my anchor, my shield and it seems my heart is broken open that I might rely on, trust, and put my hope in His unfailing love even as I bleach the world I live in.


Medicine from Sacred Scripture:

"May your unfailing love be my comfort." Psalm 119:76