What to Do When We Find Ourselves in the Furnace

Wednesday of the 5th Week of Lent

Daniel 3:14-20, 91-92, 95; John 8:31-42

None of us will be forced into a furnace by a king demanding that we choose between apostasy and idolatry or an agonizing death.  But we all have moments when the furnace comes to us and we’re in it.  We’re in such a moment on a grand scale, those furnaces come in many forms: sickness and death, unemployment and economic hardship, separation from church, friends, and community.

We face several choices:  denial, delusion, distraction, despair or devotion.  We can pretend the flames aren’t there.  We can expect that our own efforts alone will save us or the golden idols of our culture and economic system will anesthetize us.  We can give up and burn up.

That leaves us with devotion:  submitting in faith to the loving care of a God who is walking with us, sends others to join us in our journey, and who will never leave us.  God is truth as well as love and, as Jesus assures us, the truth will set us free. –jc