By Dr. Ted Baehr
Count it all joy, my brothers, WHEN you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
– James 1:2-4
After I preached at Truro Church in the 1980s, which George Washington had attended two hundred years before, I saw a metaphor for His grace in the story of a minister friend of mine, who was counseling a couple near Truro at their home. The husband had MS so they had suffered economic tragedy since he had lost his job as a result. As the minister was counseling them, there was this awful grinding noise in the background – their son’s rock polisher.
The minister friend asked if the parents could turn it off so they could discuss the problems they were facing. When they said that the machine had to be left running, the minister asked them to show him the noisy machine, hoping he would get them to turn it off.
If you have children, you will know that a rock polisher looks like a little vertical cement mixer with a funnel, a belly and three gears at the bottom. The parents told the minister that you throw the rocks that you find at the pond or stream into the machine. If they’re precious or semi-precious, they’ll polish; and, if they’re not, they’ll be ground to dirt.
The minister asked, “How do they polish?” The husband explained, “All the gears do is throw the rocks up in the air, and the rocks polish by hitting up against each other. Hoping that the family would turn it off, the minister persisted, “how long does it take?” “The more precious they are,” the husband explained, “the longer they take to polish.” So, the minister dug deeper, “Well, how do you know when it’s finished?” The wife replied, “When you can take the polished gemstone out of the polisher and see your face in it.”
The minister used the rock polisher to help the family. He said that they were like the stones. The husband’s disease and the loss of his job was battering them up against each other. If they were precious, they would polish. God would know when they were polished when He could see His face and likeness in them.
Every human being wants to be their own lord and control their own life. Yet, we know that we don’t control much of our life; and, even when we think we’re controlling it, we’re not. One way we try to do that is to get away from people, but actually God’s system is that our relationships and our situations polish each of us.
The church, the family, our jobs, for instance, are our rock polishers. The circumstances of sickness, disease, poverty are really just the gears that throw us up in the air and force us to hit up against each other. If we abandon each other, if we abandon people, if we abandon coming together, we don’t get polished. We get polished by knocking off the imperfections and rough edges of each other. So, we need each other to polish each other.
I don’t see the trials and tribulations as being a sidetrack, I see them as being the main track. I see the sidetrack as getting so self-centered that we forget there are higher responsibilities.
The truth is, we’re not made to live forever; we’re made to wear out. Like the Velveteen Rabbit who got tattered from being loved. It’s not a question of if we are going to die; it’s about what we do on that road to the other side as we lose our hair, our eyes, and other parts of our bodies.
Through these tragedies, if we allow ourselves to be polished by them, we learn to give. Giving is really love. You touch someone’s heart, and…the more you give, the more joy you have.
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