Sifting

Have you ever read a recipe where it calls for you to sift flour? I think it’s a step that’s gone by the wayside in most recipes, but every once in a while I still come across it. Honestly, I often skip the step. But I do have a handy little tool to sift if I choose to. It was probably much more widely used before machinery was improved to sift things out in the factory before the flour made it to us. Now, we get pretty clean, fine flour easily.

We sift to take out the large clumps and debris so our recipe turns out right.

A friend, when she moved to a new house, took all the dirt her hubby had dug out for a window well and sifted all the rocks out of it to make the dirt useable for a garden. It was a grueling task, and one she wouldn’t want to repeat.

I heard this recently: we often think when people, jobs, opportunities, good things are taken from our lives we blame Satan. We think it’s the adversary working evil in our lives. And sometimes that can be true. But, nine times out of ten, it’s actually God sifting.

We don’t like sifting when it happens in our lives. It feels painful, like grueling, backbreaking work. We want it to stop. We even fight it with all we have. But God works all things together for our good. That means sifting is for our good.

The Bible refers to it as pruning. If you have fruit trees, you know the amount of pruning involved. Every winter I take 50% of the branches out of my trees. It feels like so many and it seems awful. It’s also a lot of work. But in the end, it reaps a harvest of much greater magnitude than we could imagine.

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

John 15:2

If we could look into the future and see what God has in store for us when he’s sifting, we would definitely stop fighting it, even if it feels painful in the moment. Which means we should probably have enough faith in the moment to allow it to happen.

As I’ve thought about this summer, the word sifting keeps coming to mind. God keeps removing. I can’t say I’ve just accepted it and not fought it. There have been so many moments where I’ve asked, “What are you doing, God?” And not in a nice, questioning way, but in more of a “are you serious right now?” kind of way.

This past week, God sifted again. He removed Andrew’s job.

The emotions for me have been a rollercoaster. Andrew has just been overjoyed, relaxed, and back to the Andrew I knew and loved. I honestly didn’t even realize how burned out he had gotten until I’ve seen him back to his old self this past week.

It hasn’t been easy. First God removed the garden and our CSA. Then Andrew’s job. I’m not sure what He’s doing, but I do know He is good all the time. I do know I can trust Him with all my heart. I do know He is on His throne. I do know He knows what He’s doing. And I keep telling myself those truths because I refuse to live in the sadness, fear, or anxiety that can creep in. God has always provided for us and I know He always will.

For now, I know God has been telling our family to rest. He’s forced it upon us really. And it’s been so good and so sweet. We have time to play and get in the pool with our kids. We have time for having people over. We have time for each other. Andrew is smiling and joking again. We’re taking advantage of this time God has gifted us as a family with Daddy home everyday. It’s a true blessing to have so much time with him after years of 60-70 hour work weeks.

And so, in the midst of the sifting, I’m thankful. Thankful that our good good Father knows our every need and blesses us with it in ways we couldn’t imagine. After the shock wears off, we can be thankful. Thankful for time, laughter, projects getting done, good sleep, family fun. Thankful our God loves us so much that He sifts.