Deep Fried: Pickles, Twinkies and Jesus

'These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.'  1 Peter 1:7

I am from the South and we will deep fry anything.  If you can name it, we can fry it.  You can go to the county fair and visit any booth where you'll find deep fried Oreo's, Twinkies, pickles, potatoes, and even ice cream.  Why are we so fascinated with the deep fryer?  I tend to think it's because we want to take the ordinary and make it extraordinary.

This is just what Jesus wants to do in our lives.  He wants to take our ordinary life, put it in the deep fryer, let it boil a little while, and then pull us out nice, crispy, and well--extraordinary.  The time it takes to get from ordinary to extraordinary is different for each one of us.  Some of us are in the fryer a lot longer than others.  Some of us need the oil a good bit hotter than someone else.  But in the end, we all will end up just the way He wants us to be!

I can't say that I look forward to being thrown into the deep fryer.  It's uncomfortable and hot.  It's a time of uncertainty and you can get burned very quickly.  But who would've thought that you could take a dill pickle, bread it, and fry it up?  These things are wildly popular around here.  In other words, the final product is well worth the time and effort.  The same is true with the refining process that He puts us through to make us more like Him.  The end result is worth the time we spend in the deep fryer.