Forged By Faith

Proverbs 23:4 NIV Down or free? Seems there’s a generally hopeful reality, hopefully, in which we’re all promised to reach what is the same experiencing of something that will only prove to go one of two ways. The same experience which awaits each of us is our very own breaking, a moment which will go differently because we’ll get there only to either break down or break free. The oddity is that the road to this moment is paved the same no matter what. The hope is that along the way we come to learn the necessity of the one option as proven in what should be a blatant disinterest in the other. But still, when our own end we have reached, what then will be found by each? I suppose what makes this hard to even begin to understand is that it seems we meet a bit of both along the way. Indeed, inside of almost every single day we all find ourselves breaking, struggling, sinking into this believing that it’s both all on us and thus something we can control and yet that it’s then best for us ...

Ecclesiastes 1:3 NIV For the overall scope of life as seen upon this scene lived upon screens is but this wasted effort given unto either working for what we want or rather running from what we don’t. But wouldn’t this journey make far more sense if the roles were reversed? As in, well, what might life be like were we to run for and work from as opposed to all this working for and running from? What if rather than working for whatever it is that we happen to want or desire to have, what if we instead worked from what we already have as defined then not by wanting but rather by giving? And the same thing might be said then of the running. What if we, as opposed to running from what we don’t want or don’t like, what if instead we ran for what we needed, despite how much we may or may not like the only road which leads toward it? Or is, as we’ve somewhat been considering, is such a hope as hope truly as hollow as to be held here? Well, in continuing my thinking from yesterday’s writing, a...

Revelation 3:2 NIV The clarity of this call has, though unique among individuals, always been of the same collective substance for all those called. To move. To act. To awake, arise, strive, suffer, surrender, sacrifice, justify if such is in any way anywhere within our ability or His expectation of said effort. Because, again, this faith is something which does indeed demand a sort of devotion devoid of disinterest, but in fact such dire dedication should simply be offered without the expectation. God shouldn’t have to ask us to move, to try, to care. He shouldn’t have to remind us constantly of our lukewarm tendency. He came in the flesh to die for us and did just that in the most agonizing and utterly miserable way possible! How is it then that can we possibly look upon His suffering and not see a sense of urgency to now find the greatest measure of that most faithful intensity to seek ourselves the fullest amount of faith we can possibly fathom? How can we consider the cross and st...

Philippians 2:12 NIV With fear and trembling. For as defined by our never possibly knowing just when our clock may imminently run out of time, there ought to be an urgency to our faith that wouldn’t dare imagine seeing it as something so easily capable of becoming almost a matter of indifference in us. It should something of such substance that the entirety of a lifetime’s other worries are left faded and forgotten as our minds tell our hearts that we better get to getting right before that light of this life runs out. Indeed, faith should at some point become all that matters. Because without it we’ve not even the ability to pretend to begin to understand what hope really is nor where to possibly look for it. And yet such ideals have become almost ideologies so cliché and subjective that they’re anymore allowed to mean something different to everyone. Hope, love, peace, purpose, profit, poverty, the preference of personal presumptions presuming our path is supposed to be paved with po...

James 4:8 NIV How can we possibly expect to grow closer to Christ if we refuse to move? If you've read these posts for any amount of time, chances are you've noticed the word 'complacent' or some derivative of it being used quite frequently. It's such a human instinct to stay put, to exist within the ruts we've carved out in our lives and to forgo any current or future striving for anything different, for anything deeper, for anything more. Saying we're creatures of comfort is one way to put it. But if we're to be truly honest, it's far deeper and much more dangerous than just enjoying comfort. The scary reality is that we'd all just as soon not receive a thing if the receiving of it requires our personal involvement or investment, or if it includes any kind of risk or effort. We'd all happily stay right where we are without ever worrying about what could be better or what we could have found or where we could have reached. We're more tha...

Proverbs 12:1 NIV Well, you gotta love those verses that just say what needs to be said! This is probably one of those that many would find offensive, but that's okay. As we've talked about plenty in the past we need to be offended with the truth. It forces us to open our eyes and begin to consider the possibility of different perspectives. While it may not be comfortable to be called out it is absolutely crucial. If we avoid the things that make us uncomfortable then we risk more than we could ever imagine. We risk becoming disillusioned to what's real. We become used to a life where everything goes our way and everything always works out just as we want. Then that causes us to fall into this line of thinking where if anything doesn't go our way then we immediately lose our cool because that's not how we're used to life unfolding. It quickly becomes this vicious cycle of selfishness and foolishness where we lose all sense of reality in the process. We need the ...