~ written by Connie Dunmyer
Did you ever watch “Hee Haw”? Growing up, our family did. Every week. I can’t say it was my favorite show, but there was this song “Gloom Despair And Agony On Me”, which was often entertaining, and even a little relatable.
Believe it or not, this connects to my scripture today.
Zephaniah 1:12 KJV – “And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil.”
Lees are dead yeast cells, also called wine dregs. A few weeks ago, I talked about “lees” in Yield: Just Beyond the Crush.
“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 NIV version says it this way: “At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish those who are complacent, who are like wine left on its dregs, who think, ‘The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad.’”
So on the one hand, lees can be helpful. They are hard things that we don’t necessarily like or want. But going through these things can make us better people for God.
However, there is such a thing as “settling” on those lees. Becoming complacent or indifferent. And ultimately thinking that the Lord will do nothing, good or bad on our behalf. If you read the rest of Zephaniah 1, you find out that God hates that thought process just as much as He hates the worship of Molech.
From a wine perspective, I would prefer to strain out the lees before drinking the wine. But sometimes the lees get through and stick to the glass. That's ok. I don't throw out the wine. I can still drink and enjoy it. And I sure don’t pour out the wine and eat the lees instead. That’s just crazy-talk.
But in my spiritual life, how often do I do just that? I become so used to “nothing happening” (from my perspective), that I assume and live my life like God isn’t answering my prayer. I resign myself to life being a burden, and that nothing good ever happens or is going to happen. I don’t recognize all the good blessings I really do have. I may even get so far down that I doubt that God even exists. Or if He does He doesn’t care. So I will just live the way “I” want to.
Those are the dregs. That is settling on the lees. That is complacency and indifference. And that is something God does not like.
I had an interesting week last week... a week of God showing me that He is in charge of all things. That He orders my steps. And when I am not in control, He is, always! And I learned that rescue can come at an unexpected moment from an unexpected person.
Tuesday was my 6 week check-up after eye surgery to fix the hole in my macula. My doctor saw the images and used terms like “amazing”, “incredible”, “extraordinary”, “one for the books”, “should be in a textbook”, and my very favorite “the hole is closed”. God did not merely heal my eye in the typical way – He healed it in an extraordinary way. Normally the macula will heal on its outer level, which closes the gap, but leaves the layers under it still unattached. But my macular was closed on the outer and every single layer all the way through. My eyes are not perfect, and maybe they never will be, but I can see enough to recognize the blessing.
Then Wednesday, we'd traveled 4 hours to another hospital for what we were told would be a heart echo and the ability to get my husband into a clinical trial. However, when we got there, they said we could not have the echo and had all kinds of weird excuses that did not apply to us, such as "being a new patient", which clearly we are not. When I first saw the lady helping, I thought she wouldn’t be able to do anything for us. A wasted trip was all I saw. But then this woman became our strong advocate. She was like a dog with a bone. She wouldn’t take no for an answer. And she got us in. Later we met with the research scientist about the clinical trial. Her first words were “it’s full”. And again, I thought “Why didn’t they call us? Why are we even here?” And then I found out why we were here. Although we couldn’t get in the trial, she proceeded to tackle every other issue that had been blocking our forward progress. She made phone calls, put us on lists, sent us to new appointments, and truly went out of her way to solve our issues. All in the course of an hour. Again, God sent an advocate that we did not expect. We could do nothing. But God did!
Then it occurred to me, that God may well have done this – even created the circumstances that would make it necessary – SO THAT He might encourage us in our faith over what’s happening in some other significant areas of our lives. We may not see where that answer is YET – and we may even look at someone and think “no way can they be helpful” – but since God is the One doing it – anyone and anything CAN BE the tool, the messenger, the answer to our prayers and needs. He can and does do the unexpected and uses the people we consider unlikely.
I don’t really have control of most of the lees that come into my life. But I don’t have to settle there – I don’t have to wallow in it. I don’t have to settle for the dregs, for dead things. Jesus has called me to LIFE ABUNDANT (John 10:10) – and has given me His Holy Spirit to live IN me, and FOR me.
To have the lees in my life, those moments that seem hopeless and pointless – dead things – are things I would like to avoid ultimately. But if I go around like Eeyore, or the "Hee Haw quartet", where everything is doom and gloom – if I settle there – I won’t see what God had planned and planted for me. My eyes will be blinded. My faith will be dead.
Lees will happen. It’s ok. God is using them to strengthen and even protect me.
But let’s not settle on, settle in, or settle for those lees. They are not the promise. I must look up, look forward, look into the face of the Father. And He will take me through this process and make all things beautiful.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 – “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
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