Refiner’s Fire

By: Pam Cabuslay 

      Silver is a substance that can be found in quite a number of places. In its raw or initial state, it contains a whole lot of impurities that can be eliminated by treating the silver with heat, with fire. Subjecting the silver to scourging flames consequently eradicates the impurities and produces a refined piece of metal. This may be a process not readily understood by those not interested in scientific matters, but it doesn’t take a scientist or a blacksmith to see the similarities of burning a stubborn piece of dirty silver and real life hardships. 

      “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied,” is one of the most striking lines in last Sunday’s Holy Word. Whenever individuals go through rough situations in which they are unable to attain due justice, they tend to see only the surface of the situation: that they will only be satisfied if they get back in tenfold what they’ve lost, or if they get to imprison those who sinned against them. People fail to see the real consolation received right after a seemingly unfortunate event. When God spoke the words, “they shall be satisfied,” I initially only understood the superficial meaning of attaining justice at the end of an unjust situation. Speaking now as one who has been put through the impossible flames of teenage life, I realized the underlying meaning of those faithful words. It is not meant to be understood as denotatively as ‘we shall be satisfied’; rather, it means ‘we shall get stronger’. Of course, by God’s most loving grace, we will be able to satisfy our thirst for justice, but as an initial and often unseen blessing, we are already given grace by Him. After a rough patch, we may not realize, we are already satisfied, not by attaining the once absent justice right away, but by getting stronger after each scratch; therefore, in an event of absent justice, we must not see with sorrowful eyes but with grateful ones. In this sense, each unfortunate event is, in truth, a fortunate one. 

      Much like silver, we humans need refinement, something we must condition ourselves to be grateful for despite the pain we must endure. We get this refinement by getting bruised, kicked, stabbed and burned. Whenever we get subjected to the intolerable flames of justice shortage, we must not weep, we must not falter, for whenever we pass through a fiery wall, we pass through not lonely and solely masochistic flames, but through the Refiner’s fire.