"We continue to shout our
praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can
develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the
tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next." (Rom
5:3-4 The Message)
A few months ago I had an unusual encounter with my
paper shredder. I was deep into housecleaning, the kind where you get to throw
away tons of fossilized scraps (junk) that have accumulated seemingly from
nowhere. I had a pile of papers to shred, as in our current day and age this is
supposedly the best way to dispose of paper containing personal information, and
so I brought out my "precious" paper shredder.
It did fine at first. Fifteen minutes, to be exact!
Then it took a break. It was, apparently, overheated, and I patiently (Or maybe
I should say, "impatiently"!) covered
it with ice-cubes to cool it off. (Not really! I just turned on the fan!)
Fifteen minutes later I was back in business. And yes, a quarter of an hour
later, it wanted another break. Are these machines unionized or what?
The third time my shredder took an extended holiday,
it never returned. In other words it was completely kaput, out-of-juice,
mechanically out-of order. I glared at it. How could it do this to me?
I called in the reinforcements, and my son was soon
busily occupied with performing a surgical operation on my poor, overworked
shredder. Unfortunately it didn't work. The machine had died on me without even
asking my permission!
The truth of the matter was, my paper shredder
passed away
because my impatience killed it! I wanted the mountain-size pile of papers to
disappear within the hour, and as a result, my machine had a heart attack, and a
messy-one at that!
After the purchase of a new shredder, I made sure to
feed it only a certain number of sheets at a time, and I gave it long breaks. I
even polished
its casing, in hopes that this will brighten its day and make its life more
comfortable. Amazingly, it is still alive today! That polishing sure works!
The same is true when we want to perform a cleanup on
our lives. We have to be patient and trust in God's Spirit to know what He is
doing. It is a process that guides us into a profound knowledge of our Lord and
Saviour. It is one that will lead us to victory!
So if you are tempted to be impatient, remember my
poor shredder! It will leave you worse off than before! Paper shredders are
expensive you know!
Rob Chaffart
The Illustrator: This daily newsletter is dedicated to encouraging
everyone to look towards Jesus as the source of all the solutions to our
problems. It contains a daily inspirational story, a Bible verse and encouraging
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The Nugget: Published three times a week, this newsletter features inspirational devotionals and mini-sermons dedicated to drawing mankind closer to each other and to Christ.