Religion Today: The Ring
Guest Writer Spotlight: The Ring – By Richard Lewis
I saw a YouTube video about turning a conventional stainless steel fastener nut into a man’s ring. I have been snookered into these kinds of “anyone can do this at home” projects before. The video kept fast forwarding so it was difficult to tell how long it might take to accomplish this task. However, the challenge got my attention and I headed down to the hardware store to buy a few nuts to try to make one.
On first inspection I noticed that these nuts had probably been banging around in boxes with other nuts. As I looked really closely, I noticed little nicks and flaws in the corners and flat surfaces. While not a problem if used as a nut, this would not work in my quest to make it into a piece of jewelry. Also, the manufacturer had stamped their logo deep into the sides of the nuts.
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Wow, I thought, that is a lot like us. We have been banging around in life with other people. Some of them lied to us and disappointed us. We have little flaws and nicks just like those metal nuts. We have had labels put on us by others including “fatso” or “stupid”. I once had a customer come in the bicycle shop with his little toddler. The dad called to the child several times and I finally heard the name he had been calling him when he said, “Get over here, dummy!” I don’t recall the conversation after that, in detail, but he received the brunt of my disapproval and he left the store.
As I watched the ring making video, I noticed there were a few other videos of people using silverware and other more soft and shiny materials to make a ring. In this life there are often people who are very eloquent, good looking and talented. While these would be the very people you’d expect God to use we must remember that Jesus first chose some smelly fisherman and then a bit later on he chose us. Remember Luke 5:8, “When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” Peter was facing the reality that he was unworthy to be chosen for such an important task and, of course, all of us are unworthy apart from God’s grace.
Creating the perfect ring from a nut made of hardened steel takes much heating, grinding, polishing and perfecting, as well as an enormous amount of patience; much like God’s ongoing work in our lives.
The next thing I realized was that the nut was made from an extremely hardened material. It had some heat treating that made it resist any efforts to file, cut or bore into it. The YouTube video had the answer – You have to anneal the metal. This is done by heating it until it is red hot, so out came my Weller propane torch.
I discovered that anything you use to hold the nut may melt while you are waiting for the nut to turn red hot. I decided to hang the nut from a wire attached to my garage door. Now, I occasionally dance some slow dances with my wife. I have given her the impression that I can’t dance fast. However, when the wire that was holding the nut melted and dropped the nut at my feet and where it bounced around, I was suddenly inspired. There was a bit of River Dance, Electric Slide and the Twist equally well performed as I tried to avoid being burned!
There is a softening God must accomplish in our lives to make us workable and pure and that involves heat. Our hard stone-like hearts must be melted so they can be molded into a heart that is attuned to God.
Ezekiel 36:26 “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
1Peter 1:6 “So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.”
So at this point I had a very uninteresting dull gray nut. I decided now was the time to remove the threads from the nut and increase the hole size to fit my ring finger. When you try to drill out the threads in a large nut the drill bit often grabs and jerks the work vice around. I have a large drill press and used a lot of cutting oil with many steps of drill bit sizes to get the hole up to the size of my ring finger.
Perhaps this is similar to God pointing out and convicting me of the sin in my life that had left deep grooves because I had been practiced them for a lifetime. We may have pride, profanity, worry and anger that have cut groves just as deep as the threads in the nut. Removing those grooves out of the stainless steel was not easy. With the threads removed I was left with a nut with no earthly purpose. The threads that gave it value and meaning were gone, but that nut was soon going to have a higher calling. The same is true with us. We are called to a higher calling.
Ephesians 4:1 “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”
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Eventually, the ring began to look pretty good. After it had been polished I discovered much to my surprise that my ring finger measurement is not exactly ¾” but just a tad larger. I knew what that meant – more material had to be removed and that meant destroying the nicely polished surface.
Eventually a course grinding stone had ripped out a bunch more metal. There are some times in our lives when we think to ourselves that we are doing pretty good and then God gives us a test to see if we have really learned a lesson or not. This happens to me all the time. The very place I think I’m strong is where I turn out to be weak and I realize that apart from God’s grace I’m so lost.
So the question arises, “Is the ring done?” The answer is No. Every time I look at it and see a little defect I head the garage for a quick filing, sanding or polishing session.
So what would it take for me to be able to make a ring for a King? I can’t even fathom that.
What would it take for us to be presented to our God and King? It would take a lot of working in our lives to accomplish that. That is what we are experiencing and can continue to experience as we allow Jesus to have His way in our heart.
Jude 1:24 – 25 To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy — to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
Richard Lewis is a graduate of Arizona State University (Advertising) and California Baptist University (Computer Information Systems). Richard and his wife Sue met while they served as staff members at Campus Crusade for Christ for 8 years in the 1970’s. Richard served in the Campus Ministry at University of Texas at El Paso, Louisiana Tech and at the International Headquarters in San Bernardino, California.
Following their ministry in Campus Crusade Richard was the owner and manager of a bicycle shop in Riverside California for 19 years. After retraining in the computer field at California Baptist University, Richard worked as a Information Systems contractor and employee at Boeing for 17 years. Richard has written over 150 published articles in Information Systems and Computing publications including Windows Magazine and Windows Scripting Solutions. Richard has served in a leadership role as a Deacon and Elder in several churches as well as being a meditation presenter and Men’s Ministry coordinator.
Richard has written hundreds of meditations and devotionals that have been used in church and small group meetings. Many of these have been published in The Upper Room and Racers For Christ publications and on their web sites.
In 2021 Richard published a collection of his devotionals. These are available in a Kindle and paperback format on Amazon (ISBN 979-8705738878) “Life Stories to Uplift and Encourage”.
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Trevor Montgomery, 50, moved in 2017 to the Intermountain area of Shasta County from Riverside County and runs Riverside County News Source (RCNS) and Shasta County News Source (SCNS).
Additionally, he writes or has written for several other news organizations; including Riverside County-based newspapers Valley News, Valley Chronicle, Anza Valley Outlook, and Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle; the Bonsall/Fallbrook Village News in San Diego County; and Mountain Echo in Shasta County. He is also a regular contributor to Thin Blue Line TV and Law Enforcement News Network and has had his stories featured on news stations throughout the Southern California and North State regions.
Trevor spent 10 years in the U.S. Army as an Orthopedic Specialist before joining the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in 1998. He was medically retired after losing his leg, breaking his back, and suffering both spinal cord and brain injuries in an off-duty accident. (Click here to see segment of Discovery Channel documentary of Trevor’s accident.)
During his time with the sheriff’s department, Trevor worked at several different stations; including Robert Presley Detention Center, Southwest Station in Temecula, Hemet/Valle Vista Station, Ben Clark Public Safety Training Center, and Lake Elsinore Station; along with other locations.
Trevor’s assignments included Corrections, Patrol, DUI Enforcement, Boat and Personal Water-Craft based Lake Patrol, Off-Road Vehicle Enforcement, Problem Oriented Policing Team, and Personnel/Background Investigations. He finished his career while working as a Sex Crimes and Child Abuse Investigator and was a court-designated expert in child abuse and child sex-related crimes.
Trevor has been married for more than 30 years and was a foster parent to more than 60 children over 13 years. He is now an adoptive parent and his “fluid family” includes 13 children and 18 grandchildren.
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