~ written by Connie Dunmyer
Psalm 30:11-12 – "You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent. Lord my God, I will praise you forever."
One year ago, I began this sharing of my journey with God with all of you. It’s been humbling as well as encouraging. In my first blog, “What’s In A Name”, I talked about wine and how it relates to my life, especially my spiritual life.
For every wine, there is a season and a process of “Crush”. The season is typically in the Fall. It is the season of Harvest. The process of the crush was traditionally done by stomping on the grapes, though now it’s usually done via machinery. The goal is to break down the grape allowing the juice to flow, so that it’s affected by fermentation. I’ve been to Napa Valley during Crush. It is impossible to drive anywhere without smelling the crush of the grapes. It permeates every aspect of life. And so it does in my life.
I am still in a season of Crush. Of Harvest. I have been stomped on – my skins broken. And the "smell" permeates everything. My season has lasted multiple years rather than a few weeks. But God is the Good Winemaker – and He knows how to not only tend my branches connected to the Vine – but He knows the perfect timing for Crush, and for the subsequent mixing and waiting times.
I’m sure you have had a season or two of Crush… the goal being to break down the outside, so that the inside can flow and be touched by the Holy Spirit. I can’t say that every single problem you or I go through is a part of “Crush” or that someday it will become a bright, shining bottle of wine. I cannot simply wave a magic wand and “Ta-Da” or “poof”, it’s beautiful again. I cannot create the mixing or determine the waiting time it take, like a winemaker can.
However, I am finding that more often than not, there is something beautiful... something permeating that's just beyond the Crush, just beyond the pain, just beyond the despair.
Oh I know, if you’re like me, you don't even want it to be beautiful… YET. We think we do. We pray for it – we cry over it. But in the crush, the darkness can become so familiar that we are almost “comforted” by it. We’re not done feeling victimized or broken.
In the fermentation process, the “lees” happen. Lees are sediment… dead yeast cells that settle at the bottom of a wine vessel after the crush, after the fermentation. As humans, we tend to want to remove ourselves from the “lees”. But to allow the Winemaker to do His perfect work, we often need to stay in the lees, at least for a while. The “lees” can significantly enhance the wine by adding textures, body, and complexity. The “lees” – those things we’d like to get rid of because we look at them as “dead” – are actually providing natural protections.
So we wait ... and wait ... and wait.
Then it happens. That beautiful day comes.
We’re not expecting it. In fact, we are surprised and even humbled by what has been produced. What we once thought of as a curse, as only painful – is now a beautiful taste, a fulfilled promise, a quality blessing.
I have plenty of “crushings” in my life to remember, to ponder, to remind me that God knows what He’s doing. I may have to lose some things that I thought were important – some outer skin. I have to get out from under the weight of my future as “I” planned it. The good wine, the good stuff has never come when life was easy. It came just when I thought it never would. Just beyond the Crush.
“If we're gonna trust God with our eternity, we need to trust Him with our NOW.”
This quote is from Paula Biehl – from the story behind the song you'll want to listen to, “Before the Morning” by Josh Wilson. Hear the story below, and see if it doesn't resonate with your crush. I know it did for me. This quote now hangs on my desk… a reminder that my Crush, my Harvest, my Wine, my Lees, my Life are all in the hands of a Good Father and Winemaker, Who makes ALL things beautiful and perfect in His time.
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