Sometimes Rough Is Better Than Smooth

Do not be wise in your own eyes;
   fear the Lord and shun evil.
This will bring health to your body 
   and nourishment to your bones.
Proverbs 3:7-8 (NIV)

Back in the day I worked in construction. I worked for a guy who built the houses from the ground up, the foundation to the roof. I had just bought a new smooth faced hammer for things like nailing off decks. For some reason I was leaving "moons" (when you miss hit the nail and the hammer head makes a mark like a half moon in the wood) all over the beautiful redwood deck.

My boss walked up and said, "Is your hammer shaped like an egg or could it be your swing?" I laughed and told him the hammer was brand new. He asked to see the hammer, looked at the face of it, ran up to the road and started to hit the pavement with my brand new 28 oz. smoothed face hammer! He was rubbing it back and forth on the road when I grabbed it and asked "What are you doing? It's brand new!" 

He chuckled and explained, "Whenever you buy a new smoothed faced hammer, you need to rough the face up a bit to give it some grip on the nails. Otherwise it will just slide right off and you will make moons all over the wood."

Sometimes we try to keep things all smooth and nice and then God allows us to get roughed up a bit. Then we find that those trials help us get a grip on our faith just a little better. Like the marks on my hammer helping, God in his infinite wisdom, uses the marks of our trials to know him more and be useful instruments in the Kingdom of God.