This is an old-fashioned, two-station cider press that someone took the time to lovingly restore.  The first station is a grinder that breaks the fruit into smaller pieces, so you don’t have to crush it whole. The fruit is then dumped into the press, where pressure is increased to squeeze out all the juice. It’s a labor-intensive, but ingenious system.

There have been times in life when I felt like I was going through that system. The worries and trials of life seemed to batter me and break me down. Then the pressures threaten to squeeze the very life out of me.

Back in the early 1990’s, Kathy and I both sustained traumatic brain injuries within a few months of each other in separate motor vehicle accidents. We were both off work and struggling with everything. Our marriage became rocky as we navigated major changes. We fought to get the long-term disability benefits, leaving us incomeless for an extended period. We used up all our savings and investments, and our home was on the verge of foreclosure. Our friends were mostly from work and soon evaporated as their worlds moved on, leaving us friendless and without a support system. We were not yet believers, so there was a church community to lean on. At one point, I was seriously contemplating suicide.

Life went on. We survived and came out the other side changed but very different. In our case, we came to faith over time, and that faith has sustained us. Looking back, I cannot see a way we would have made it without Christ. At the very least, I believe our marriage would have ended, and our prospects would have been dismal.

Even as believers, we can have times when we feel as if we’re going through that cider press.

The apostle Paul understood that truth.

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;  always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.  So death is at work in us, but life in you. 2 Corinthians 4:8-12 ESV

But he had words of hope and promise.

Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.  2 Corinthians 4:9-16 ESV

Our struggles may appear overwhelming and times hard, but this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal

My friends, we might be crushed and persecuted, but never destroyed. Hold fast.

Be blessed

Kevin