Our Broken Meat Grinder--and the Rigorous Exercise of Discernment

Recently Jonathan and I repaired a broken church window in Denver on our way to that cabin remodel estimate I wrote about a few posts back.

Here he is getting the new window carefully out of his truck. 

I helped Jonathan by holding a big piece of plastic underneath to catch the broken glass as he carefully poked at the outside layer of glass to dislodge it.

And then after he was done replacing it with a new pane, 

I helped pick up many little pieces of glass.

I asked Jonathan if he was used to doing this kind of repair, and he said he really hadn't done very many jobs like this.

Every place he works the job is just a little different--many tasks to figure out which he's really never done the exact same way before.

All through life, we are confronted with new tasks,

new twists, turns, angles, 

new sides to stories, 

new twists on an old problem,

and we have to exercise our God-given judgment to decide what we ought to do 

and how we ought to do it.

Unfortunately, too often, there are those who not only fail to discern properly,

that is, according to God's Word and godly principles--

but they don't exercise any discernment at all. 

They just do what feels good to them or what somebody convinces them is okay.

Often they listen to someone else's proposal that sounds good, feels good, looks good or tastes good,

and they fall for it. 

Especially if it is made to look spiritual enough,

or like what would be the "loving" thing to do.

It's so easy to just go with the flow,

float along the current,

do what "everybody" else is doing,

and vote yes just to keep the peace,

or to keep from being the speckled egg or the stick in the mud or the die-hard.

We fail to simply say, "Wait a minute.

What does God's Word say?

How about we take some time to pray about this and look at the long term effects 

before we just make a hasty decision or drop a careless vote?"

It takes experience to achieve maturity,

and it takes exercise and practice  to gain good discernment 

and to become strong not only in body but in spirit and mind.

The other day, our meat meat grinder that Jonathan had spent $80 for,

broke after grinding only about 20 pounds of  sausage.

The plastic gears overheated and broke irrepairably.

I could not find replacement parts online and we had to toss the whole grinder in the trash.

All because of cheap plastic parts that could not hold up to the heat.

Thankfully we were able to borrow another grinder from friends.

This one has all steel parts and it grinds and grinds and grinds

and grinds and grinds.

Steadily and surely, this strong, steel grinder churns out pound after pound of sausage, 

and tonight again, hopefully, it will be churning out pound after pound of homegrown ground beef.

I was reading in an article the other day about how the people of Hebrews, to whom Paul wrote,

needed "reminding that spiritual maturity is gained through the constant practice of discernment."

As a Mom, I need discernment every day as I raise my children.

Two days ago, my little daughter refused to come eat breakfast so she would not have to help with dishes.
It took me a few moments to exercise discernment.

Instead of cracking down on her, I chose to simply permitted her to do what she wanted to do--
but suffer the consequences. 

So she was allowed to play in her room, and she did not have to rinse dishes for Mommy, but she had no breakfast either.

At lunchtime, this is what Mommy set out for little daughter to eat.

To her horrified expression, Mommy replied that it would take dishes to cook the rice or the oats, and that this is about all that could be found to eat without being cooked!

(She hates tomatoes!)

For a few moments, little daughter took off quite indignantly, hiding behind a door and wiping tears from her eyes.
This was not easy for Mommy.
I do not enjoy the pain of watching my young children suffer through learning their lessons. 

I explained that as soon as she would come and do her job of clearing the dish drainer, 

she could have all the nice food that the rest of us were having for lunch.

It only took about three minutes, and little Miss Muffet was rather frantically putting away dishes and enjoyed a nice lunch with the rest of us--

with no one rubbing anything in.  

And she has been doing dishes ever since!

I could have taken the easy way out and decided it was too hard to make her do what was best for her,
and just do the dishes myself and let her have a snack later.
No.
That was not best for her, me, or anyone down the road. 
The author I referred to above wrote, "We too are in a spiritual war and under constant assault. God is calling us to spiritual maturity through our difficult, confusing, sometimes exasperating individual, family, and church situations (as well as our national ones). We are not to begrudge them. There is more mercy in them than we see, for they force us by constant practice to ransack the written word of God, get it in our hearts (Psalm 119:11), and grow in prayerfulness (1 Thessalonians 5:17) and in discernment.

There are far bigger things at stake in our becoming discerning people than the coming election. The United States, and every other nation, is just a drop in the bucket in the eyes of God (Isaiah 40:15). God’s primary concern is his holy nation, the church of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:9).

"The main thing happening around the world is not in news headlines, but what is happening in and through the church. What history is all about is the coming of Christ, his work of redemption, the spread of his gospel, and the ingathering of all his people from all the peoples into his church (Matthew 24:14; 28:19–20) — something the gates of hell will not withstand, much less human governments (Matthew 16:18). The more discerning we are, the greater benefit we bring to the church of God.

"That means there is great mercy for us and others, for our local churches and the global church, in God doing whatever it takes to make us more spiritually mature and discerning men and women. The fruit of our suffering and wrestling is never only for us, but also for the good of our brothers and sisters.

Whatever It Takes!

God has many purposes in the American presidential election. He is so powerful, so brilliant, and so complex in his providential weaving of history that it may be entirely possible for discerning Christians to vote differently in good conscience and yet all be serving the mysterious layers of God’s perfect will.

God knows how to tear down the proud (Proverbs 15:25), humiliate the devil and his angels (Colossians 2:15), and keep his saints walking by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). And he often orchestrates events in such a way that no one fully sees his stunning victory coming, until it bursts upon us like a thief in the night. God will reveal to us all someday how all the raging of the nations served to do what his hand and his plan had predestined to take place (Acts 4:25–28).

Let us not try and trace all the threads of his glorious providential tapestry.

 "Instead, let us pursue spiritual maturity by making this our prayer:

Whatever it takes, Lord, increase my ability to discern good from evil through the rigorous exercise of constant practice."

taken from http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/lord-help-me-know-right-from-wrong