Forged By Faith

Job 30:27 NKJV What is affliction? Is it a lesson, one taught in misery bought not by us but rather by He who knows the better we can be as is measured against the better we’re not on this side of misery sought? Is it something we seek at all, seeing often no reason at all to do so? Is it something seeking us, something of a monster maybe, a mischief of sorts seeking to distort our lives so vastly that maybe the sum of everything we knew or hoped to know is just gone and not coming back? Is it losing everything we had, comfort the first tragedy? Is it maybe something of an inspection, a test of our flexion seeking for the point of our breaking? Is it maybe something sent to aid in our making what is that life that we’d not have the understanding to live otherwise? Is it something to which we should close our eyes and always wish it away? For that’s usually what it seems we resort to. We always seek for these bargainings in which we offer up something in exchange for our either having s...

Job 7:17-18 NIV What is opportunity? Is it really something always afforded better by the affluent? Is it the chance to experience that which is only exciting? Is it even always an excitement? Is it rather something we sometimes avoid because in fact it is not always void of the fear found in something we consider unexciting but rather frightening? Is it a feeling only felt by those who’ve found a choice they hoped to be able to choose? Is it something lost by those who elsewise lose out on the ability to see life inside life’s ongoing difficulty? Is it perhaps even an affliction which seeks to first make us its victim so that we can then better understand the eventual victory? What is affliction? What is victory? Are not both an opportunity? Haven’t both something to offer? Do not both give us something we’d otherwise have failed to gain without the strain put in place by that place to which we go seeking to find out what more we might know about who we are, what that means, where tha...

Psalm 73:14 NIV What is affliction? Is it is a symptom of some burden to be lifted that’s never taken away? Is it the weight of the way in which life never seems to go our own? Is it the wait through which we wade as we worry through weather and whether or not it’ll ever clear so we can see something better? Is it the knowledge that better is there but that we, for what seem a million reasons and regrets, just can’t ever seem to get closer to it? Is it the miseries we meet in this miniseries of a life laden with stories that tell only the tale of so many things that didn’t end well, didn’t go right? Is it the pain we find once we’ve found that there’s not much left to find on, in, of this ground? What is pain? Believe it or not there are things far worse that gnaw at a man than illness and injury, things he never lets anyone see and even fewer know, places that he's gone to which he prays he will never again have to go, things he's known that he wishes now he never did, a life ...

Psalm 119:71 NIV The affluence of affliction. It’s something that affords us far more than money might buy. It offers us a growth greater than physical stature or even personal statue. It grants a soul safety as something no longer assumed but rather something assured. It gives a heart something in which to hope that cannot then be taken away as if from a strong man bound and pillaged. It provides both providence and its provenance as proof of a person’s personal pursuit of something perfectly peculiar. Indeed, affliction is a peculiarity all its own in that none can own it but it allows all owned by it the opportunity to owe a debt of gratitude against which no human attitude might compare. No, for we all know rather well that human emotions are often oceans that cast us adrift in differing directions throughout the day. At times we’re happy as held inside the hope of hardship staying at a good distance for a little longer. Other times we’re upset when said distance has been surprisin...