Transformation Through Fire

Over the past couple days, Annie and I spent some of our drive to North Carolina listening to David McCullough's 1776. The book covers the plights of George Washington and the Continental Army from the siege of Boston through the Christmas Day crossing of the Delaware. Now I know that for some of you the mere mention of history makes your eyes glaze over but bare with me for a few sentences. I promise this post will be about more than (really cool) Revolutionary War history.

What most of us don't know, and what McCullough brilliantly describes, is that George Washington was not always the brilliant commander and leader we remember him as. In fact 1776, his first full year of command, was almost a complete failure. His first major battle, the defense of Long Island, couldn't have gone worse (leading John Adams to summarize "In general, our generals were out generaled"). To make matters worse he followed up Long Island with three more miserable defeats.

Morale was very low and the patriotic fervor that had enveloped the nation following July's signing of the Declaration of Independence was gone. What had begun as whispers of his incompetence had grown into a very loud and open discussion. A good portion of the colonial population (not to mention the British) were convinced that the war was completely lost and that Washington was to blame. He was a failure and he would go down in history as the man who cost America her independence.

But then something happened. Transformation occurred. He began to learn from his mistakes, his indecisiveness started to slip away. He became more comfortable with his command and his daring crossing of the Delaware helped turn the tide of the revolution and save the young country.

None of that transformation would have occurred without the failures.

And that's so much like our lives. So often the only way God can make us grow us by knocking us flat. It's one of the central mysteries of the Christian walk: the only way up is down.

No matter how we look to the outside world, we all go through times where we feel like complete failures. We've let ourselves down, others down and God down. Nothing makes sense. We blew it bad and everything is lost.

I believe that it's at those times God can truly begin to work in us. We cannot be built up sitting in comfort on the sidelines. Washington was commander for over a year before Long Island, before his transformation truly began. It took going through the fire, both literally and politically, for him to become the man he would. It takes going through the failures and disappointments of life for God to make us who He truly would.

This is tough and I don't claim to be any expert in it. But God's grace is always waiting for us to get us through those times and help us to get out of His way so transformation can begin.