When one reviews the great names and personalities of the Scriptures, you very quickly find that almost all of them knew great discouragemnet at one time or another.

Job is described as the noblest man living in his time, but during his suffering, he cries out in anguish, “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle and spent without hope.”

Moses is described as the most disciplined and the greatest of all Old Testament personalities, but as he leads the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, he becomes frustrated and disappointed with them. Only a short way into their journey, they want to return to the security and ample food supply they knew in Egypt. Moses became so discouraged that at last he shouts, “O Lord, why have you afflicted me?”

One of the most common questions people ask when they are suffering in life is “Why?” Few definitive answers are available. When sometimes we get a flash of insight with a partial or possible answer, more often reasons remain a mystery. In the absence of answers and reasons, we have the gift of faith. Recently, I found this story, for which I have not learned the author.

It feels right to me, and it touches many places in my life when I have asked, “Why?”

“There was a group of women in a Bible study, studying the book of Malachi. As they were studying chapter 3, they came across verse 3, which says, ‘God will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.’ This verse puzzled the women and they wondered what this statement meant about the character of God.

“One of the women offered to find out about the process of refining silver and report back to the group at their next Bible study. That week she called up a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She did not mention anything about the reason for her interest, beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver. As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire, where the flames were hottest, so as to burn away all impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a spot – then she thought about the verse: ‘God sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.’

“She asked the silversmith if it were true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered yes, he not only had to sit there holing the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left even a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed. The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, ‘How do you know when the silver is fully refined?’ He smiled at her and answered, ‘Oh, that’s the easy part! When I see my image reflected in it.'”

When you are feeling the heat of fire in your life, if you are feeling afflicted, you may cry out, “Why?” Remember, the eyes of our creator are always on you. God keeps his hand on you and watches over you. God always sees his image in you. Out of discouragement, great possibilities can open up before you.

The Rev. David Calhoun is pastor of the West Scarborough United Methodist Church.