Living in the Olive Press

In the Bible it talks about the pressing of the olive. It is a hard fruit with a tough pit inside. The valuable part comes as a result of the pressing and grinding of the olive with the heavy stones which is a rich, luxurious and delicious oil from an otherwise hard and bitter fruit. The oil was coveted and used for many good purposes. Anointing, prayer, etc. It takes a lot of pressure to get the oil out of the olive and what is leftover is the dry, broken fruit. I feel like an olive right now. There are so many things pressing on me as we go through this process of leaving Lopez, selling our home of 25 years and weeding out all of our earthly belongings just to move again to our rustic camp in Maine and not knowing what comes next. My loving God is pressing me right now and I feel the weight of what we are doing and how God is using this time to bring forth something rich, luxurious and delicious that can be used for His good purposes. He knows that the only way to produce that in my life is for me to be broken before Him, for my tough and bitter inner 'pit' to be shattered. It is in the stressful times when we learn the most about ourselves, our character and our strengths & weaknesses. It is a time for choices, changes and growth. I strive to trust the process.