I caught some milestones on my odometer yesterday. I’ve always liked numbers and when they align just right it gives me a little hint of joy. As I was driving the Lord spoke to me about the milestones and the mundane. In the life of Jesus we often think of the milestones. The water to wine, the loaves and the fishes, Lazarus called out of the tomb, walking on water, the sermon on the mount, to name a few. From His birth to His crucifixion there were undeniable times where Jesus made a mark with the work of His hands, the path He walked and the words He spoke. But what about the random Tuesday when he was 15, the time working as a carpenter in the heat of the sun, or the times he shared a simple meal with His family?
There were milestones and there were mundane days and moments that led up to them.
The mundane leads to the milestone.
I was led to Isaiah 41 and in that chapter verse 15 stood out to me. It says “I make of you a threshing sledge, you shall thresh the mountains and crush them and make the hills like chaff”
What is a threshing sledge? It’s two or three thick wooden planks tied or glued together to form a rectangle or trapezoid. The underside is embedded with hundreds or thousands of sharp flint stones, obsidian flakes or iron teeth. The front curves like a sled to be able to glide over the piles of harvested grain.
Threshing is not an instant process. In traditional threshing, animals dragging a threshing sledge would pass over the grain a number of times. Often until the straw was broken into small pieces and the grain was fully separated from the chaff. While the exact number of passes varied, traditional processes involved multiple rounds, frequently requiring the grain to be turned over and re-threshed.
If it takes grain that long to thresh, how can we expect a mountain to crumble in the blink of an eye. Yet many of us expect this out of our Christian walk. We want the milestones without the mundane. We want the breakthrough without the surrender. It doesn’t work like that.
Make the hills like chaff. Where does chaff come from? Animals would walk in circles over grain on a threshing floor for a prolonged, repetitive, and inconsistent number of times, often “round and round" until the stalks were completely broken down and the heads of grain were removed. This process was not measured by a specific count, but rather by the farmer's judgment, as they watched the straw become chopped into chaff.
What if you keep going in circles because according to the Lords judgment, the straw, the chaff, the waste in your life, has not been chopped away. What if you’re in the mundane, the walk around this mountain because you’re still working toward the breakthrough you so desperately need?
You can’t give up, you’re almost there. It may seem like another day, another pass around the same mountain, but you are breaking the straw off of your life.
The breath of the Holy Spirit will blow away the dust of the straw, the chaff, winnowing away what doesn’t belong until the grain is left over and can be put to good use.
It’s ok if it takes more time than you thought it would. It’s ok if you’re in this season for longer than you thought you would be. You’re still threshing. You’re still moving forward, you’re still pressing in and dying to the parts of the flesh that don’t belong in the harvest.
Don’t give up.
Your mundane will lead to your milestone in Jesus name.
Isaiah 41:15-16
15 Behold, I make of you a threshing sledge, new, sharp, and having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you shall make the hills like chaff;
16 you shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the tempest shall scatter them. And you shall rejoice in the Lord; in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.
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