Now that I have returned to work at Chick Fil A, it was inevitable that I would become hooked on their newest product, the frosted lemonade…or as I call it YUMMMMM!!!  Seriously!  It is addictive to the maximum, and one reason that I love it is because it has no milkshake base- it’s just their vanilla softserve mixed with lemonade.  Oh. My. Word!  I finally managed to leave today without drinking one!

But this blog is not about how delicious it is.  It IS about the process that goes into making it.  Chick Fil A uses fresh lemons, not any powdered lemonade mix or such.  Today was my day to handle that process, and God spoke to my heart the whole time.  Those lemons are quite content in their little (heavy!!) box in the cooler, having a great time.  Then along comes an employee who drags them out, sprays them with water, washes all the dirt off and then…..gasp!……starts cutting them!  Those lemons never knew what was happening!  Before long, a lemon massacre has happened in the sink, and no lemon is spared.

The next step is even worse.  There is an electric juicer involved, wherein each lemon half is placed on a whirring knob, and then pressed down on.  And pressed is a polite word!  They are MASHED on the knob, and left on there until every last possible bit of juice is out of them.  The lemon seeds are cast aside by this machine, and scooped out later and thrown in the trash.  And then that lovely lemon juice is made into some of the most delicious, refreshing drinks.

Ok – so you know where I am going with this!  Born again believers are simply sinners who have been washed clean, and then they are ready for use.  But not the use most of us think of!  They are ready to be cut, and then squeezed, in order to be made into something delicious!  And along the way, the squeezing gets pretty intense, but that is in order to wring out every good thing, and to make sure all the seeds (sins) are gone! And like the lemons, there are times that the squeezing could stop – but then some of the good stuff would be sacrificed..the lemon wouldn’t be used to its fullest potential.

Now, I do not like the “squeezing” I receive sometimes – hardship, illness, frustration, financial distress.  But without it, I will never be the refreshing, beautiful, and helpful “lemonade” in God’s Kingdom!  So here’s my prayer for today – the next time I feel “squeezed”, I will remember what God can make of it, and I will try to endure till the end of the process!