The Art of Sanctity

It took 8 yrs. for the reality and the loss to begin to twitch. And then after so long, there it was, bald and open like a page of my history that had for too long been closed and hidden. Exposed in its raw and naked state, the wakened memory stared me in the soul and dared me to face it rather than run away yet again. I never really thought of this memory as a living, breathing, continual entity. It had always been "something that happened", an occurrence that I brushed aside with elegant (yet ominous) disregard. I suppose I knew that the past has a way of resurfacing; that what I could not keep hidden from my family could also not remain hidden from my own heart...

Why is it we might wonder, that we are so set and bound to bury our deepest and most painful experiences? I believe we are survivalists. As we know that we have physical imitations, our endurance is often tested. So we must have soul limitations. But we're even more loathe to test our spirits endurance.
And yet we serve a God who has no limitations of body, soul, or mind who calls us to be and exist outside of our mortal selves and in Him. And I think the way He calls us to practice this is by allowing and bringing up those most excruciating and testing hours of our lives - the trial-by-fire of our souls. That is His art of sanctification.
Jesus is the sanctifier. But we practice the art of submission. Willingness to allow Him to use every part of us, good, bad, and painful to turn us into His great work. To sanctify all of us to be worthy children of His grace.

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Note: I am aware that we will NEVER be "worthy" of God's immeasurable grace. But I recently heard some teaching that was new to me that was from scripture. God gives us opportunities to be counted worthy - to build up treasures in heaven. (I Thess. 2:12) And in Revelations 4: 9-11, it says that we then lay our 'crowns' at the feet of Jesus. We give back to Him the crowns of endurance and refinement that He gave to use during our journey. We owe Him everything, and all praise and thanksgiving is due to Him. It is to this truth that I refer in the last line of this reflection.