Things We Talk About When We Talk About Refinement

Wisdom Nugget: I have refined you, but not as silver is refined.Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering.

It is a matter of great interest to visit plate-glass works, and inspect the casting-tables on which the heavy plate-glass used in the large store-windows is cast. Each table is about twenty feet long, fifteen feet wide, and from seven to eight inches thick. The rough plate is commonly nine-sixteenths of an inch thick, but after polishing it is reduced to six or seven sixteenths. All casting tables are mounted on wheels, which run on a track made to reach every furnace and strengthening-oven in the factory. The table having been delivered as near as possible to the melting furnace, a pot of molten glass is lifted by means of a crane, and its contents poured quickly out on the table. A heavy iron roller then passes from end to end, spreading the glass to  a uniform thickness. This rolling operation has to be done by expert hands quickly, as the boiling glass, when it comes in contact with the cold metal of the table, cools very rapidly. The glass is then passed into the oven. When it is ready to be taken out of the oven, its surface is very rough. In this condition it is used for skylights and other purposes where strength is desired rather than transparency. But when intended for windows it has to go through an experience of grinding, after which it is smoothed and polished. Transparent souls are made in much the same fashion. Men must be melted down in the heat of the furnace of trial; must have many a heavy roller run over them, leveling their pride and ambition; must be strengthened in the oven of patient submission.

We call it pain or problems but it is refinement. However, we aren't refined like silver in one day, instead, we are refined through many years of life, in the fiery furnace of affliction.

As Jim Rohn said "We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment". Anthony Robbins concludes "The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you're in control of your life. If you don't, life controls you."

Why Do We Suffer?

"You must not under any pretense allow your mind to dwell on any thought that is not positive, constructive, optimistic, kind" - Emmet Fox


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It's easy to feel pity for ourselves when it appears the world has come down on us. We refuse to see anything else other than gloom from our sad experiences; it's a normal human tendency.
Finding themselves in the same boat, three women sat at a garden drinking coffee on a warm Sunday morning. "I did everything right, yet I'm a lonely, miserable maiden," said Tina the hostess of the pity party, as she mopped tears from her eyes."Oh, mine's worse," cried Lina, "I'm unemployed and in debt. Worse still, I'm battling breast cancer." When they turned to their friend who'd just lost all her kids in a plane crash, she said, "I'm enjoying the birdsong and the weather so much, I can't even remember the things that aren't right in my life."
Someone once said: "the soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears"

We often wonder why suffering is allowed in the lives of good people. But suffering isn't always a bad thing. Sometimes problems are used to teach us the essence of compassion. In our suffering we also learn to deal with life's problems. While some of us might choose to dwell on the "why-me side of things", the rest of us can choose to focus on the bright side of life.

Trials and tribulations are usually blessings in disguises. They, usually, force us to dig deep within our souls in search of a new meaning for our lives. Instead of asking, "Why is God punishing me?" Perhaps, you can ask, "What am I to learn from all of this?" There seems to be a message in every tough situation, if only we listen carefully enough. The truth is nothing happens for the sake of it. It might be difficult to learn positively from every bad experience but you can, with the love and guidance of wiser people.

In facing tough times, we should be willing to see the bright side of things and focus on improving and moral characters things. In doing this, our outlook on life will be improved. Praying frequently and studying are valuable tools for dealing with tough times.

Be determined to acquire new virtues at the end of each trial. Notice how kids become smarter with each bad experience. They are young and naive, too trusting of the people around them. Life works like every loving parent who would stop their child from putting his hand on a hot stove. The child "suffers" at the moment by being denied access and by the temporary pain of a spanking. But the parent sees the "big picture" and disciplines the child. So, too, can Life discipline us so that we learn to think critically about bigger decisions; this is a call to see tough times differently; as new opportunities to learn and become wiser.

It is wrong to assume that people in tough situations incurred the wrath of a higher power upon themselves. Hardships are probably a call to be more compassionate, even with ourselves. Suffering ought not to elicit judgemental attitudes from us, rather, it ought to teach us compassion and love and empathy.

 Showing these emotions to the suffering is part of the beginning of true rebirth.