Distillation

Written by: Anonymous

We are what we hate about ourselves the most. We are all those things we don’t want ourselves to become. When we comment on what we hate, we are able to articulate clearly what it is that we hate. But often we have trouble then determining, understanding, and divulging what it should be instead. This is proof that we understand and even relate to the thing we hate far better than what we do not.

This is because our rage creates a passion that makes it easy to see, while seeing ourselves without the mirror is a difficult task. It means using our other senses and coming into touch with a lot of things we don’t want to admit about ourselves. This honesty becomes important in faith.

Muddied waters will not yield clear drinking water without a process of distillation. This “distillation” is the same process we need to go through ourselves: we need to learn to accept discomfort and allow our impurities to bubble up, separate, and settle in an identifiable way, while the pure form of water, or our faith, evaporates from it. The steam makes it hard to see and to determine what is what. Immersion into faith causes conflict within oneself. The confusion is extremely uncomfortable, but it is also a sign that the process has begun and that you are getting somewhere. From then on, there’s the journey to the “other side.” It starts to gently feel cooler, more comfortable. And then it turns into water that you can drink easily and draw benefits from into your own body.

Faith becomes easier; the struggle within oneself with the impurities becomes less pronounced. However, with removal from its original container, it is once again exposed to new impurities in newer forms that are harder to identify. And the cycle continues.