"It's Mealy!" (1 Peter 1:6-7)

I have recently been experimenting with crock pot cooking. A wonderful invention, it allows the easy preparation of a hearty meal with minimal effort after putting the ingredients together. The first meals included oxtail, beef short ribs, and chicken. The flavoring was savory and the meat was fall off the bone delicious. However, on one excursion, I left the meat in the crockpot for over 14 hours. When my wife and I tried the dish, she observed, “It’s mealy!”

I was unsure what that meant but understood that there was a difference in texture to the meat. Instead of the tender and succulent nature, the meat took on a crumbly and, paradoxically, dry consistency, in spite of marinating in a savory sauce for over half a day. Bottom line, when there is excessive pressure and heat, the usual firm and resilient nature of meat breaks down and becomes crumbly and unpalatable.

When I find myself under excessive pressure, will I withstand the test or do I also crumble? Will the experience strengthen me or exhaust my resources? Do I become tender and more responsive to God or dried out and mealy?

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith —more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire —may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:6-7 (ESV)

The difference between a savory meal and a ruined mealy one is separated by only a few additional hours of heat and pressure. The difference between standing for God and succumbing to the pressures of the world may be separated by minutes or seconds. How can I prevent this? I need to continue to entrust my life to Jesus Christ lest I crumble and my life becomes mealy.

Amen!

Love and trust the Lord; seek His will in your life.