The Daily Grind

Sometimes life can seem like a grind. Day after day the millstone rolls on churning out more of the same. Unfortunately the circumstances of life sometimes run us through the mill and we feel crushed. We feel forsaken and alone. Does anyone notice or care? Is God even there to hear our cry?

Has life been pounding you lately? Are you doing your best to ‘keep your nose to the grindstone’ while all the while you feel it pressing down upon you?

It’s not just the grindstone that is rubbing you the wrong way. Your patience is cut short by people with short fuses and seemingly no compassion. Everyone’s attitude can be summed up in the phrase, “Look out for number one,” and it shows.

Everyone has their own problems whether big or small, so we are all alone to face the challenges of each new day. Is it any wonder we refer to our work week as “the daily grind?”

If that sounds like you today then I’ve got good news. God has not abandoned you. The Lord wants to renew your hope—no more than that, God wants to renew your joy.

• You, my people, have been threshed and winnowed. I make known to you what I heard from the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel.
  Isaiah 21:10 (GW)

The nation of Israel was an agricultural society so they understood the imagery of being threshed and winnowed, but most of us don’t get it. When grain is harvested it goes through a two step process. First it is threshed, beaten on the ground, trampled or put through the mill; this opens the seed to expose the valuable grain inside. Second the grain is winnowed, thrown up into the air separating the grain from the chaff that is blown away in the wind. Both of these steps happen in the modern combines; the grain is kept within the combine and the chaff is blown out the back.

When we go through the grind we experience the same thing. As a nation Israel was being crushed, but afterward the righteous would be separated from the wicked. Likewise God works the same way within us as individuals; we are threshed and winnowed to separate our evil desires from the righteous life God wants us to live.

Perhaps now we can face the daily grind with a new attitude. The process isn’t easy, but God knows how to bring a harvest of righteousness from our lives. That’s why Isaiah makes known the good news God has spoken, and that’s why I want you to know God will renew your joy as He separates the wheat from the chaff of your life. You are not alone.