re•fin•er•y

I am always looking for natural inexpensive ways to stay fresh faced, and so I happened upon a face peel mask over the weekend and thought…why not.

In preparation, I watched various youtube videos, and when it came to talking about the pain felt while peeling off the dried up mask, no one minced their words. But still I thought meh..! What could it hurt?

And so I go about making my concoction, and then I proceed to ceremoniously apply it to my face. Twenty minutes in and I feel the skin on my face start to tighten. Forty minutes in, and I could barely move my face. Fifty minutes in, and my face was legit hard.

I couldn’t help but liken this whole experience to when I am in God’s word, and He is seriously dealing with me concerning a character flaw or how I handled a situation, or the state of my heart. I feel every muscle in my body tighten, mostly because I am annoyed by having to look introspectively. It is hard, difficult, chest tightening work looking within. Especially if it’s one of those days when I just wanna breeze by,  get my word for the day and keep it moving.

At the hour mark I came face to face with myself in the mirror and everything in me wanted to burst out laughing at the sight of me. But I couldn’t, because my face was temporarily immobile. I screamed internally— but more out of frustration, because in that moment, I really wanted a good hearty laugh. If I knew what was to come, I would have saved that scream.

Our faith is always in the refinery. When one giant is slayed, a bigger one often emerges. It is a visual representation of, “to whom much is given, much is expected.” Our faith is always tested, which is a requirement if we are to ever have deeper, stronger and enduring faith. When fighting the good fight of faith, it is a mixed bag of laughing, crying, kicking, screaming, and all else you can think of that would express the pain, frustration and gratitude felt from stretching beyond what you thought possible.

My timer goes off, and it is time to peel off the mask. I trace around just below my chin to find the edges, and once found, I pull— a tad too carelessly initially, resulting in a rather sharp pain. It is quite possible that my spirit left my body in that exact second. Okay maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but oh my days, that level of pain was unexpected. So there I am, staring at myself in the mirror, thinking why the heck Mel? But too late, I was already in too deep, and I couldn’t exactly leave my house looking like a mummy, so I had to endure till the very end.

It took several breaks, lots of words of encouragement, a few dance moves and some jumping jacks to get to the last and final peel. Bless the Lord it felt good. Like really good, and my face…my oh my! baby butt smooth, with a creamy yogurthy type suppleness, and an extra topping of fresh glow. All that goo, dead skin, (not visible to the naked eye), and stubborn black heads peeled right off. A detoxified and purified transformation. Well helllurrr fresh faced Mel! Pleasure meeting you.

When we are in the refinery of God’s word, it is hella uncomfortable, and sometimes, downright painful. We are pressed and pulled, flattened and stretched. There are tears and stare downs, resistance and compliance. It is anything but a walk in the park. The process is long and daunting, but very necessary to get rid of all the impurities, as He moulds us into His very own premium version of ourselves— His image.

“O Lord, we have passed through your fire; like precious metal made pure, you’ve proved us, perfected us, and made us holy. You’ve captured us, ensnared us in your net. Then, like prisoners, you placed chains around our necks. You’ve allowed our enemies to prevail against us. We’ve passed through fire and flood, yet in the end you always bring us out better than we were before, saturated with your goodness.”

Psalms 66:10-12 TPT

We always come out a gazillion times better when we press into God and allow for due process. Always.

PS: If you are in the slightest bit interested, I did the gelatin peel off mask: See video— https://youtu.be/lij7iZAeQ1Q and might I add, be of good cheer, you have overcome 🙂

Happy monyaaaaaaaaaaay! 🎉

xo

pic: @pinterest