A 2-for-1 LIFE HINT

Take a life hint from a cook's hack.....

I used to buy a little bottle of dried onion flakes for my kitchen spice cabinet. Per ounce, it was unreasonably pricey. But why keep a half-sliced onion in the refrigerator for weeks at a time when you just need a shake or two (or five)? Then I hit on a solution as close as my blender, which had enjoyed an easy life whipping up milkshakes. Why not make “onion-shakes”? Just chop that tear-inducing onion a bit, drop into the blender, add some water, and push the button. Then, divvy the onion slurry into recipe-size chunks, frozen in cupcake papers.

Okay, cooking lesson over. (Do you plan to try that?)

But what about when life makes us cry—when we feel so wounded, so alone, so overwhelmed that our emotions pour out of our tear glands? I cried—a lot—when my parents died six months apart when I was 31 and still single. And when 45 years later my husband died. And...and...

Loss is hard. But loss shapes us in one of two ways. We become bitter. Or better.

One of my former pastors often addressed the truth that being a Christian didn't mean a free ticket to Happyland. Those who aspire to a godly life, to be significant instruments in God's hand, must learn to trust God in hard times. To be “cut down to size.” To back that up, my pastor often emphasized this memorable quote from A.W. Tozer: “It's doubtful that God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply” (from chapter 39 of Tozer's book, Root of the Righteous).

In other words, hardship under God's oversight teaches the humility and trust essential to be a useful instrument in God's hand. We can remain a big old onion, and eventually rot away. But to be used, we need to let life's “cutting” experiences—the tear-producers—re-purpose us in a good way. God's way. And then to let Him use us as “spiritual seasoning” to the world we live in.

TEAR-JERKER

Oh, the tears that flow when I peel and chop an onion in food preparation. There's an explanation for that! When cut, onions release “syn-Propanethial-S-oxide,” a chemical irritant that stimulates the eyes' “lachrymal glands,” releasing tears. Next time you're experiencing buckets of tears while chopping onions, impress somebody with that explanation!

But there's another way to look at onion-peeling, one that's really personal. Prayer-centered monk and author Thomas Merton (1915-1968) compared the misery of onion-peeling to God's refinement of our character. Layer by layer, He peels away our self-centered spirits until the real-”me” is revealed. It's the idea expressed via another ancient spiritual spokesperson, Jeremiah, who gave this word from God: “I [God] will bring adversity on all flesh” (Jeremiah 45:5 NKJV).

What! Isn't God the grandfatherly type who answers every prayer for health, wealth and happiness? Sorry, but no. He uses hardship, tears, misery, of our fallen condition for good—if we let Him. One writer, commenting on the Jeremiah passage, put it this way:

God says that when he brings great disaster upon you there will be no time to pack a bag filled with ego, self-centeredness, lust, or materialism. He'll let you escape, but only with the Jesus clothes on your back. What you're left with is your real life in Jesus (Colossians 3:4). A life that is filled with God's purpose and a life in alignment with God's heart and mind. In this real life, we enter into the abundance of life promised by Jesus (John 10:10). (1)

Every layer of selfishness and “entitlement” that's peeled away, like an onion, is apt to produce angst and tears. But it's the process that brings us to the heart of God. No matter what hardship or discipline we endure, there's a bottom line—that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).

Our spiritual journey will involve trials and tears, all part of God's way of peeling away layers of the self-focused life. Tough times may result from our own bad decisions, or from the negative actions of others toward us. Such times—it's often said—can leave us bitter or better. “Better” happens when hardship presses us closer to the heart of God.

And I remember: God's own Son wept. Over the pain of a sin-soaked world. But in His divinity He knew the rest of the story, in heaven:

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. (Revelation 21:4)

Such hope sometimes brings tears to my eyes—good tears, not the onion type.

1. God Peels Back the Layers until the Real You is Revealed | Devotional by Jon Walker (thoughts-about-god.com) Oct. 19, 2019, accessed Aug. 24, 2021.

A layer at a time

When I was a youngster, my mother was still carrying on a Depression-era habit of making her own soap. For months she’d save grease from cooking until she had enough to mix with lye according to her family’s passed-on recipe. I remember little of the process except it was hard work and dangerous. After cooking in a huge enamel pan on the stove, the concoction was poured into newspaper-lined boxes in the garage to cure. Later, she’d shred it into the washing machine.
I was so glad when she gave it up and just bought detergent! I also remember the worries about kids being around lye, which had a distinct skull-and-crossbones sign on it for “poison.”

I was reminded of its power as I recently re-read a classic missionary biography by Isobel Kuhn titled Green Leaf in Drought. The book recounted the suffering experienced by the last China Inland Missionaries trapped deep inside China in 1951, when all others were evacuated due to political turmoil. Despite severe hardship under ruthless local rulers, who brought them to the edge of starvation, Wilda and Arthur Mathews trusted God for the impossible. It would be two years before they were able to leave, first Wilda and their small daughter, and a few months later, Arthur.

Throughout their years of unjust and unfair treatment, the couple sought solace and hope in prayer, scriptures and devotional books. One poignant quote, from English preacher Alexander MacLaren (1826-1910), was this: “The meaning of all that God does with us—joys and sorrows, light and darkness…is that our wills may be made plastic and flexible.”

Wilda would look back on this excruciating time as her spiritual “lye bath,” remembering her job in a fruit canning factory when she was a girl. Peaches were plunged into a lye bath, then rinsed, to hasten the skinning step, then sent on conveyor belts to workers to put into tins for caning. For months after that job, the damage lye caused to her hands resulted in successive layers of skin coming off. “And so with this crucible experience,” the author wrote. “The layer of looking at other causes had to come off; then the layer of quickness to anger in the heart; the layer of longing for pretty things; the layer of over-sensitiveness; the layer of impatience (can’t we go now?), the layer of mere submission, and so on” (p. 45, 1981 OMF reprint).

I photographed an onion with lights to show its layers as another symbol of this “peeling away” the Spirit does to bring us closer to the Father’s heart. Whenever I peel onions for chopping, they bring on copious tears. And whenever God is doing some serious work in peeling away my sins of “looking at other causes,” there are going to be tears.

The process isn’t fun. But the end result, of growth in spiritual steadfastness and trust, is worth it.