Discipline, when it is happening, rarely seems comfortable. Discipline, in a sense, correction, implies that something isn't quite as it should be. Adjustments are applied, until the right fit is achieved.

I recently acquired an unusual flintlock mechanism. I believe it came from Africa. The side plate shows evidence of some production machining; the rest of it appears to have been worked by a blacksmith. It is in the Miquelet pattern which is uncommon for us Westerners. It came without two springs, and a trigger sear. So, today, I plan, weather permitting, to spend and hour at the blacksmith forge and make some springs.

I plan to make the springs from a broken car leaf spring. I will take a ten inch rusty piece and cut off a piece that is a half an inch wide. I will heat it up to a orange/yellow heat, and carefully hammer it out. In some places, it will be drawn out longer, and in other places, I will drawn out the width. In the end, it takes some careful fitting to get a mainspring to fit the lock. Then, it has to be heated to a bright red color, and quickly immersed into oil to chill the metal. This is called quenching the steel. At this stage, the steel in the spring has hardened to the point that it will break if bent. So, to make the spring usable, it has to be re-heated very carefully until the metal color shifts from a straw yellow to a iridescent blue. then it is quenched once more.

Lately, I feel like God is working on me like this. He is re-shaping me to make me more usable. He isn't using a big hammer and heavy blows. Just careful shaping, with a few taps here and a few taps there. A bit a file work, and more re-heating.

I suppose, if a rusty broken car spring could talk, it would say that would prefer to be left alone. It is old, and it went through the forming process before. Isn't that good enough? Forging steel upsets the old shape. Re-heating, hammer and file work seem like a lot of bother, if we don't have a view of the purpose.

God's word, tells me that it is The Father's purpose to "reshape me into the image of His Son." So, God re-heats, and taps here and there in my heart to change the rusty crude material, into something shiny and precisely fitted to the work He has in mind for me to fit. So be it, amen.