Why The Good Things Come Pressed

With shower-water running over me and my thoughts running too, I'm struck by a simple yet powerful truth. I had been thinking about a certain program I enjoy watching and how the upcoming episode was all about olive oil and how it's made and why I was excited to see the host take viewers through the process of producing one of the world's finest food products. But then, a metaphor hit me and I realized something... 

All the finest things - all the quality stuff in life - comes pressed. 

I mean, think about it: olive oil, which is used to flavor and create so many dishes globally, exists because the olives have been crushed... liquid goodness running out to form a superior product. Flour forms because wheat has been split and ground. Beer is made by pressing barley, and wine is made by squeezing grapes. And all these varying products, whatever they be used for or however they are enjoyed, come about because somebody wrung them out. 

And perhaps, in order to form a soul of great quality, one must also be wrung out and crushed.

In order to produce hidden goodness, the heart must be pressed and squeezed.

I've nearly lost count of how many times I've been put through such a process and just how much it hurt along the way, and now I'm seeing that it's been true for thousands of years and maybe this is why Jesus so often used the analogy of grown things and pruned things and broken things... because, no matter the century, life still grinds at you just the same. And didn't Isaiah 53:5 state that the Lord Himself was crushed for our sakes? 

Hidden goodness cannot spring forth without some brokenness, and it is the actual crushing that releases it. While the olives or the wheat berries or the barley or the grapes are all tasteful in and of themselves, the quality products that are produced by their very splitting are pleasure and basic essentials to our world. So many pleasurable flavors, recipes, and plain ordinary staples would not exist had these products simply been kept whole. 

And I'm wondering how many times we've prayed for God to not break us when it's the actual pressing itself that brings forth the quality He is after in our lives. Perhaps we've been asking Him for the wrong thing and assuming that remaining an un-split soul is the best kind of soul when really, the grinding and pushing and squeezing is part of the refining process. And we cannot turn into a good thing unless we are crushed. 

Some things are just destined for the millstones and the presses, and all hearts are destined for the same in some way. The difference comes in whether or not we believe in the finished product and the One who is crafting it to His liking.

Shampoo and soap run down the drain and I'm also feeling some old lies running down the drain too as I'm seeing this all more clearly. The good things happen because something died or was broken and every last dream or hope that was shattered just made room for a better one to take its place, and every soul that's been wounded just opened up space for the Light to break in, and all this splitting and pressing and squeezing that's tested the faith and the patience just releases what's been hidden inside that could not otherwise come forth. 

God knows He has to sometimes let us be crushed in order to let that dormant goodness out - to allow liquid grace to run free and a heart to be set free and the things that lie covered to spring into life. It's true for every seed in the ground and the grinding of all things meant for the finest taste: the good things come pressed, and the good lives worth something in this life come pressed also, and who doesn't want to end up fit for the Master's best? 

As the great John Owen well put it, "God doth not afflict willingly, or chasten us merely for His pleasure; He doth it to make us partakers of His holiness."

So maybe we need to accept the fact that the things that break us are really the stuff that shapes us. Maybe we need to realize that being crushed isn't actually the worst thing because the best things come from exactly that. Maybe we need to just trust the process more and remind ourselves that the end result is worth the trouble in between.