Hot Iron

I saw a quote just now that arrested my thought process. It went something like this:

Do not wait to strike 'til the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.

The only person it's attributed to is "William B." so if you know who said this, help would be nice.

Now I can ALMOST see the attraction of this statement, encouraging the reader to jump quickly at opportunities, or to create for themselves an opportunity. I can ALMOST agree with this statement except for some very small (large) details. When I read this, it made red flags jump up all over the place in my head.

Before I go on, a little background to my life.

For about 5 years of my early teens, I worked (first volunteering) at a horse barn, where I learned all manner of things from caring for horses to riding them. There were many days when I would stand with a horse while the farrier took care of its feet and either replaced their shoes, or trimmed their hoofs. Now, a farrier is a horse shoer, a person who, for a living, travels from barn to barn, horse to horse, and takes care of the metal shoes on the horse's feet. They deal with metal for a living, making it hot, and then bending and striking it while it was hot. I never once saw a farrier try to strike the horse shoe while it was cold. In some way, he always warmed it up. Granted, there were times when he needed to tap one side of the shoe in, if it had gotten a little bent out, and it was a quick fix that didn't need the firebox, but that was all that ever happened. If a blacksmith of any kind were to try hammering metal before it was hot, he would possibly break his hammer, and crack and break the metal. You can't hammer metal before it's hot, and you can't hit metal hard enough and long enough to heat it up.

So, this statement just doesn't swing with me. Sorry.

There is one other problem I see is that this saying "Strike while the iron is hot" or "wait to strike while the iron is hot" depicts (for me) a person who is patient enough to heat the metal to just the right temperature where he then is able to shape it to his will. Yes, it took a little longer to heat the metal, but he got better results by waiting a little than just hammering away at cold metal.

As a Christian I am supposed to rely on God to provide for me and I am to be patient and willing to follow his lead. He is the blacksmith, and I am his pupil. I won't know when the iron or the metal is truly hot enough until he tells me. Yes, I can stick the iron in the firebox to heat it up, yes, I can watch it grow red, but as his pupil, I won't know when to pull it out and start beating on it until he says go. This phrase "make it hot by striking" shows me a pupil who has said, "no! I can do this on my own. I don't need your help. Your way takes WAY too long! I'll just hit it now! Friction makes things hot, right?"

If there's anything I've been learning recently it is that I need to be patient with everything. I need to be patient when I'm waiting on my kids to tune their instruments. I need to be patient when I'm waiting on something I've ordered to come in. I need to be patient when I'm eagerly awaiting my wedding day and it seems that it will never come. I have all these opportunities to rush ahead and speed the process up, but most of these opportunities, if taken, would end in heart ache and chaos with God having to step in and redo things. So, the long and short of it is this: I will wait on God's timing, and then when everything is as he would have it, I will take full advantage of all the opportunities he gives me to move for his glory, so when people say "wow, you know what you're doing!" I can say, "Thanks! But in reality, I have a really great God and Teacher."

To marvel in His goodness, or God is Good, part 4

All of life should be about marveling in God's goodness, and sometimes it is, but as human beings, we so easily miss God's goodness because we are so blind to it. And yet God is gracious and He gives us times where He is so very good to us that we simply cannot miss it. First to Adam and Eve for not smiting them on the spot when they disobeyed His one command. And then to Noah by saving him AND his family. And then to Abraham by not only giving him a child in his old age (100!) but also through that child and his children growing Abraham into a nation from which the whole world would be blessed through a Savior.

There are so many other stories of God's amazing goodness to humankind through the Bible, and even in today's history, from the Chilean miners, to the gift of life that happens every day a baby is born, to the three weddings I've gone to in the past week, all of them emphasizing that God needs to be the center of the marriage.

God is good, and I know this. He's "not tame, but He's good." And recently my Savior, my God, my Father, has been more than good to me. He has blessed me with family and friends that love me, with a good home and life, food on the table every day, two jobs, both of which I actually enjoy, and so much more. I am a sinner deserving only of death, but I enjoy all of this not only because of God's grace and goodness, but because His Son died for me, making me a child of God. Of this I have to remind myself daily or I will easily fall into making the blessings an idol and not worshiping the God who gave them to me.

As of tonight, one week ago exactly, God saw fit to bless me in the best way possible to date.

On New Years Eve of all days, as we were getting ready to usher the new year in, Michael asked me to marry him, to spend the rest of my life with him, getting to know him, and pursuing God together. I, of course, said yes. Twice. With a squeak in the last one.

Now this amazing man that I am going to marry didn't just do it any old way, he did it in probably the best way possible. New Years Eve my mom had invited not only my Aunt and Uncle over with their three kids, but also three families that I've grown up with, over to our house for a New Years party.

After the end of a group game we'd been playing, Michael disappeared, and when he reappeared, it was to drag everyone in the house who would come into the dining room (where I sat wondering what in the world he was up to) with my guitar in hand. He looked at my 17-year-old brother and his best friend and asked for their help in singing a song. When they learned what song it was, they said yes automatically. So, with my brother and his best friend singing background, Michael looked at me and began to sing the song "You'll always be my best friend" by RelientK. It's short and sweet, and I'll put a link to it at the bottom of this post. At this time, it is my favorite song. After he had finished the song, he thrust the guitar at my Dad, told the gathered crowd, "This song is dedicated to my girlfriend who will always be my best friend," and then came over to where I had gotten up to give him and thank you hug.

He took the hug and then stepped back to look at me and said something along the lines of, "I know we haven't really been able to talk about this openly, and I know this has been hard on you and I hope we can talk openly after this, but I wanted to let you know that I love you, and ask you if you would do me the honor of marrying me." At which point he dropped to one knee and pulled out a box with the prettiest, most sparkly ring I'd ever seen. I squeaked yes twice, once before he got the box out, and once after he got the box out. And then we were hugging (because of course, no kissing until we're married [mutual choice here]) and he was putting the ring on my finger and everyone was surrounding us and congratulating us, and I was desperately trying to figure out where I'd put my phone so I could find it and call my best friends.

It took about 5 minutes to get out of the press of people surrounding us, at some point in which my mom grabbed me and said "Maybe you should go for a walk and cool down, be alone, or something," and I fervently agreed. After I managed to scramble out of all the people in search of my phone, I headed up stairs to look for it, only to realize that I desperately needed to throw up. Never fear, I made it to the toilet, but it was interesting to head back downstairs with my phone and be able to tell Michael after he got off the phone with his parents that sorry my breath smelled funny, but I'd just gone and thrown up.

We left to take a walk, reveling in what had just happened, and calling friends and relatives. My best friends thought it was fantastic news, Michael's sister thought he was pulling her leg and had to be convinced that he was serious.

But here's the most amazing fact: this is just the start. This crazy, amazing story I've just told is just the start. God blessed me amazingly that night, but he continues to bless me in new and different ways every day. It is amazing that he would deign to stoop and bless this sinner with not only a relationship with the most wonderful man I've ever met, but that he would allow the two of us to at some point become a representation to the rest of the world of what Christ and his bride are to look like in the unity of marriage. Wow!

So please pray that because I know God is good, that I would continue to live it. That I would never forget the goodness that God has shown me, through first, sending his son to die for me, and second, for blessing me with the opportunity to marry a man who is completely and amazingly unlike any other man in the world.

God is very, very good. Much more than I deserve. Now to serve him and love him for it.

~H

PS Here is the link to the song.

Bride? Yes please!

So, you know that saying that roughly goes like this: "A girl's heart should be so wrapped up in God that a guy has to seek God to find her"?

It seems like a great quote. It's nice and fluffy and offers hope to any girl out there who thinks that romance is not going to ever be part of her life. It also seems to encourage the girl to pursue her creator who loves her more than any guy ever would, or could. I thought this for a long time.

Recently while talking with a friend of mine, she mentioned that she had brought up that saying while trying to counsel one of her friends in what her friend thought might be a hopeless romantic endeavor, and little red flags went up in my head. The only reason they did was because I had once had someone tell me the same thing. I'm not saying I had disastrous results with it, but there were some cautions I would give to anyone who tried to follow the sayings advice.

First my own experience with the saying. You might have read previously on this blog how I am a hopeless romantic, and in my freshmen year of college I became aware that the romance in my life was probably not going anywhere any time soon. I became despondent and depressed, worrying more about why guys weren't taking an interest in me that what my Savior thought of my moods.

So, I heard this saying from a couple different places and thought it was really a lovely idea. I swore off of guys and hoped that if I pursued my Savior, he would bring romance into my life. Let me say that again. I hoped that if I pursued my Savior, he would bring romance into my life. If you haven't already caught it, there's a problem with that statement. I was pursuing God to get an end that I wanted and not an end that my Savior wanted for me.

Now the good news is that God honored even that small misguided pursuit of him and drew me towards him, finally showing me that he was all I would ever need, no matter what. What I wish I'd done differently is just pursue God for who he is and not what he could have done for me.

So to those young women out there, I would caution you about that saying. Pursue God, yes. Bury your heart in his, yes. But don't do it with the hopes of an amazing romance on the horizon. What you will find instead is the most amazing romance of your life. The God of the universe, the one who spoke it into being, and yet cares about even the tiniest of life forms, knows you deeper than you even know yourself, your brokenness, your ugliness, your valid reasons for being unlovable, and yet loves you way more than you could ever know. He has died to bring you into a relationship with him. And it's not like we as sinners wanted relationships with him. Imagine the best romance you can and then times it by 1000 at least.

I'm trying to say with words that which is unsayable. Girls, it's okay to struggle with the fact that a God who is infinitely glorious and holy would love you. I struggle with it myself. But never stop preaching the gospel to yourself. In time you'll come to see him better and love him more and believe that he loves you as well. I am praying for each of you as you read this that you might see him who is more beautiful than you can imagine.

To all my girl friends out there who have been struggling with romance, your bridegroom awaits. All you have to do is walk down the isle. :)

~H