Forged By Faith

1 Peter 1:6 NIV What is sufferance? Is it something of a suffering made so personal that it becomes our expected normal? Is it a growing tolerance of those things in life we grow to tolerate simply because we haven’t really any other choice? Is it a concession chosen unto the chaos of life causing life to remain chaotic without our continuing to seek aimlessly for ways around it? Is it the facing down of failure and fear with a smile where hung the frown we’d usually wear? Is it perhaps even our wanting to be worn, weary, worried and that both by this war and too that it might end before we’re ready? Is it determining to be never ready to quit but rather always interested in staying invested no matter the investment? Is it investing our comfort as what becomes a willing sacrifice offered unto the reality that this life isn’t supposed to go right, a humbled appreciation for the truth of this emplacement? For the truth is that we’ve all been placed here in what remains a place where we a...

Hebrews 12:7 NIV What is endurance? Is it some measure of physical capacity that’s determined by such things as a pace in a race? Is it the ability to withstand that which seems intent upon seeing if we can? Is it the ability to stand in the face of that which is adamant that we can’t? Is it the asking of someone to accept something seemingly unacceptable? Is it the accepting of something that we’d rather not admit we’re somewhat appreciative of having to hold? Is it the ability to hold our breath or ensure our strength doesn’t run out until the time’s run out in whatever competition we’ve entered or been entered in? Is it as simple as a person competing only against themselves and our self’s tendency toward seeking always for such things as the ease of personal safety and the simplicity of ongoing comfort? Is it the knowing that comfort can only take us as far as we’re willing to allow our weakness to define us, a junction created thanks to our willingness to always let it decide for ...

Hebrews 12:6 NIV What is emancipation? Is it just some fancy way of saying freedom? Is it a feeling of having been freed? Is it something that one person can ever really give another? Is it something we’ve never already had? Is it some plainly political ploy played to endear a new group unto a side of some war you wish not to lose? Is it a familial failure found in setting free from the family one who wishes to no longer remain so connected? Is it just the general disconnecting of someone from something that’s elsewise proven entirely too prone to pain or strain or struggle or other such persecution? Is it a formal document written unto the benefit of those for whom it’s written as it literally spells out both their recent lack of freedom and also an awareness as to both their newfound liberty and that with the stipulation stated clearly as to who granted it? Is it something that we can be granted having given it away in order to be defined as those now in need of it? It’s truly a weir...

Job 5:17 NIV What is emendation? Is it something of an amending but only vaguely specific? Is it something of a preference, an input as given us from another who sees something concerning in our present? Is it a present offered those who, though writing their own story, or so we’re often told, are found to be either unworthy or unable to actually hold a pen? Is it an emancipation from a life lived as if a scribe living a life that’s meant to die no matter how many attempts we’ve made at a better rewrite? Is it rewriting a life rewired to find us no longer hired out for temp work or minimum wage? Is it altering the ways in which we walk, the words used when we talk, maybe even something which inspires us to talk less as it suggests that our every word will be weighed? Is it the weight of a mistake, one we didn’t catch but rather was caught by another who, in this case, cares enough to inspire in us a willingness to be rebuked? If anything I think it’s something a proof of humility makin...