squeezing oranges
When I was in junior high my youth pastor brought an orange to youth group. He started out by asking what would happen if he squeezed the orange. He then proceeded to squeeze the orange and we were surprised to see blue juices flowing out of the orange. He asked us if the pressure on the orange somehow changed the internal contents of the orange. He said the pressure merely pushed out what was already within the orange, hidden beneath the skin. He said life is like that. He said the pressures and stresses and sufferings squeeze us so that what is within us, hidden beneath the skin, comes to the surface and leaks out. This was a pretty deep life lesson for a room full of immature junior highers. I will never forget it because it drove home the truth that I couldn’t blame outside factors for what bubbles up and flows out of me when I am under pressure, stress and suffering. God uses such things to reveal to us the contents of our deepest and often most hidden internal places. We can not