Beauty from Ashes

Recently, I was listening to a ​Tim Keller sermon​ while getting in a couple of miles on my treadmill. He was talking about how fire can be both a good thing and a bad thing. Fire is good when it’s contained in a fireplace, warming the house. But fire is destructive when it’s on the living room rug. Fire has the power to destroy—or to refine. It can reduce something to ashes, or it can purify gold.

Two people can walk through the very same tragic situation and come out completely different. One may be burned by it, left bitter, angry, and hardened. The other may come out refined—changed, softened, and able to use what they’ve learned to help others who are hurting.

Scripture never promises that life will always go smoothly. What it does promise is that we will never walk through the fire alone. God is with us in it, working even the hardest things for His glory and our good. He truly can make beauty from ashes.

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been walking through a long trial in my own life. If someone had told me twenty years ago that this was coming, I would have honestly said I wouldn’t survive it. I would have imagined myself needing heavy medication, hiding in a dark room, slowly unraveling—physically, emotionally, and spiritually. But that isn’t what happened.

Even though I’m still in the fire, my faith has grown stronger. I’ve learned that Jesus didn’t step away when things got hard. He stepped closer. He’s been walking with me, right here in the middle of it all. I still have unspeakable joy in the midst of heartache and pain. It’s hard to explain. But it’s very real.

I’m often reminded of a quote from Corrie ten Boom. “God permits that which He hates in order to accomplish what He loves.”

We may not get to choose the fires we walk through—but we do get to trust the One who walks through them with us. And somehow, in ways we can’t always see yet, God uses even the flames to refine us, not destroy us.

“For these light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:17-18

February 13, 2026 Morning Brew

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