Crucible

Crucible.  The word means many things to many people.  To some it may refer to that creepy play you read in your High School English Class about the Salem witch trials.  To other it refers to the last, excruciatingly difficult hike in the Marine Corps Boot Camp.  Some may think of the blacksmith's tool, a little pot in which metal is melted so that only the most refined remains.  My meaning has a little more depth.

When I think of the word crucible, I think of friends and family.  I think of those who have come to my aid, those who have stayed by my side, and those who have left.  I think about trials.  Trials are the crucible of life.  They heat things up, make things more and more difficult, and less and less appealing.  In the end we wind up stronger for it, but not until a great deal of sweat and tears and heartache have occurred.  Yet during the process we learn a lot.  Not only about ourselves, but about those around us.

During trials, when things heat up, we learn who we can always count on.  When the light is nearly gone, when the path before us seems very grim, we will be able to look around and see the people in our lives come, go, or stay by our sides.  Those that leave were the excess.  The bit of metal that we didn't really need.  Those that stay or come quickly to our aid are the refined.  The gold a midst the rust.  They are those that we truly need in our lives.

That is not to say, however, that those that leave are not good, wonderful people.  They are.  Period.  We are all God's Children, and He loves us all.  I believe that with every fiber of my being.  Their leaving your side - or mine - does not make them any less valuable to Him.  It doesn't make it any less painful that they've gone.  But it does show you, in the end, who you can count on to always be there.

When you are at your very worst, look around.  See who remains.  And then, even when you're through the darkness, keep them close.

This is a song that gave me great peace the other day.  I hope you enjoy it.