The Bible came to life one day when I was in Kitale!
I went with one of the girls to the Posho mill. This is a place where dried maize is taken and ground into unga (flour). You can buy prepackaged flour in the store, but trust me, posho mill flour is the best (and it’s usually cheaper!) This flour is then cooked into something called Ugali, a staple food for most people in Africa.
Before the maize can be ground, you must sort it first. So, we dumped the maize onto this metal tray with holes.
The holes are big enough for the bad stuff (tiny rocks and particles) to fall through, yet the maize remains. We would move the maize back and forth to get rid of anything that wasn’t supposed to be ground and sorted the maize to make sure there weren’t any big pieces.
During this process, the chaff (particles of the husk) was also discarded. Sometimes we would lift a handful of the maize and drop it onto the pile and the chaff would float away. I had heard about chaff in the Bible, but never really understood it fully until this day.
Ok, now let’s read Psalm 1.
1 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. 3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.
4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.
I don’t know about you, but my real-life task of sorting maize brought this verse to life. I sure don’t want to be like chaff, floating away, and giving in to the desires of the world. I want to be rooted, firm, and steadfast (like a tree) with the Lord. Our relationship with the Lord isn’t a joke! You’re either in or you are out. There is no middle ground. So what’s the evidence you’re rooted and not floating away?! FRUIT!
Let’s produce more and more so others can also “taste and see that the Lord is good!”
Oh, and don’t forget to say, “Goodbye chaff!”