Forged By Faith

James 1:2 NIV To consider is to choose the choice that contemplates, that evaluates, that negotiates the particulars and peculiarities of something be it a situation, circumstance, confusion or contention, seeking inside such considering the good that’s there to be found despite the bad always biting for our attention. And thus for us to consider it pure joy to face trials of many kinds is to set our minds to find the good within even what we want to believe only bad. It’s to make the conscious effort to evoke joy from within a heart perhaps jaded or complacent or fearful or failing as it falls most often in that regard toward that most negative of direction. To consider joy is to choose joy, to pursue joy, to make joy our outcome, the only of which we’re in any way willing to welcome, to want, to win. Yes, to choose joy is to deny all that isn’t conducive to such a stance as happiness. Alas, it’s perhaps too a choice we’ve scantly known thus far in life. For what is joy? What is it to...

Psalm 51:8 NIV A strange thing happens out here inside the novelty of this narrow. It’s a gradual shifting, a time-expansive transition if you will. Inside His most patient sanctification every found soul finds itself inside of Him a newfound hope so joyous that all we’ve known of life is suddenly slowly considered not worth knowing anymore. All the time spent worrying over pains and problems that we now know to be transient and temporary are finally met with a disconnect as demanded by a devotion no longer divided among worldly worries. He changes the way we think as He teaches our eyes to strain beyond the horizon which once defined the limit of our hope. No, out here on this narrow road leading home we finally start to learn to embrace the losses of a world and a way of life lived within it that were always meant to be left behind anyway. And so as we grow in Him over the days which feel both somehow seconds so quick that we can’t see all He’s doing and yet still years in which we f...

James 1:2 NIV Pure joy. That seems like a concept that we have very little comprehension or understanding of in life. How many times can any of us say that we've felt pure joy? Can any of us say that we know exactly what that kind of unhindered, unyielding, unashamed, untainted, unstoppable kind of joy really feels like? Well, in truth, most of us can. You see, joy is something that all of us have felt and experienced in our lives, but the problem is that it’s something that in and of itself is quite rare, and we also have a bad habit of making it even harder to find than it already is. We tend to relegate joy to something that's found only when something extraordinarily special happens. Joy is something that seems reserved for only the biggest of celebrations or the most remarkable of news. Joy is often times nothing more than a distant idea that we like to think about and talk about because when considering how painful and challenging our lives tend to be, joy seems to be som...

Proverbs 17:22 NIV As I've mentioned in at least few prior posts, I do a lot of watching the world around me. I take notes. I pay attention. I'm always studying life and how people live it because I know there's always something to learn. So I keep note of things that make sense to me, things that I think may help me be a better person. And I also make note of things that just don't seem right, things that I don't want to do. In all of my studying here lately I've noticed a really big commonality in our society. People are just unhappy. It's maybe something that I only notice because I'm one of those people who can read a room and I just seem to have this innate ability to sense when something's off. I can tell when people aren't feeling good. I can sense when someone's angry or upset. And I just really notice that more than ever here lately. People are unhappy. They're angry. They're gloomy. It's like they're all just walking...

Ecclesiastes 5:18 NIV Life doesn't feel very fair sometimes. Our trials don't make sense. Our circumstances are harder than we'd like. Some of the things in our way on this journey seem like the odds are stacked against us and we don't have any chance of making it. Our days can feel mundane and repetitive. The things we have to do may not be all that enjoyable. So what do we do when we struggle to find joy in our lot? Well we can get upset. We can whine about how unfair it is. We can let ourselves be trapped in this miserable mindset where joy eludes us. We can focus only on the bad and neglect the good. We can let the hard days outshine the good ones and allow them to pull us down. We can sit around with this woe is me outlook on life and just believe that everything is against us and our happiness. All that's fine and often our natural reaction to things. But what does it get us? How do we gain anything from that? Does constantly seeing only the worst in life do a...

Psalm 34:5 NIV Don't we get tired of playing the victim in life? Always being defined by the opinions of others or the shame of our past mistakes. Each of us look for proof of our worth to make us feel like we matter. But when we seek that proof in worldly acceptance then we're going to be disappointed. When we try to justify our value by being perfect and never making a mistake then we're going to be let down there as well. Friends, our worth was proven on the cross. What more do we need? Will the approval of other people make us feel more important than knowing what Christ did for us? Will beating ourselves up every time we make a mistake make us better? Or will that constant need to find more validation only leave us feeling empty because we keep looking in places other than the Gospel? This is one of those things that I personally think about quite a bit. So much time gets spent trying to find joy in life. We look in so many places but nothing ever does the job. Again, ...

Psalm 118:24 ESV There's always this huge build up to Christmas day. All of the shopping, planning, cooking, and celebrating. Then the day after it's like this crash back to reality when all of the celebrations are over. We start packing up the decorations and find places to put up all the gifts that we received. While Christmas has come and gone, our rejoicing and celebrating the gifts we've been given should never stop! I felt the need to share this one today to remind everyone that this is a great day too. It is another remarkable gift in itself. Every day is. Holidays get this extra excitement with all of the festivities, but in reality, we should celebrate every single day that we're given. Not because they're all full of parties and too much food but because God chose to open our eyes one more time. One of the biggest lessons that my parents have always taught me is to be happy in the small things. Not every day is going to be perfect. We won't wake up eve...

James 1:2 NIV Our post yesterday talked about how faith isn't about asking God to take away the storms but to help us find peace within them. My Mom mentioned this one in her comment on yesterday's post, and yeah, it goes perfectly! In my opinion, this is one of those keys to life. It's one of those secrets to peace and happiness. In truth, it's not all that hard to find joy in our lives, we just tend to go about it the wrong way. I love how it says to find it purely joyous to face trials. What, are you nuts? Trials aren't any fun. They're not enjoyable. They're not comfortable. So where's the joy? Well, the joy is in realizing that those trials are chances to grow. It's in learning that we have plenty to learn and a God that is always trying to help us do so. There's the joy! Not in seeing the bad in things, but knowing there's good to be found somewhere. It's easy to gripe and complain when we're in the middle of life's messy ti...

Psalm 31:7 NIV Britt Nicole shared this one earlier today and I thought it was perfect to go along with what we talked about yesterday. We need to look to God above and before everything else. He is our source of all that we need, and He generously provides for us every day. And He does all of it out of His endless and unchanging love for us. So why would we ever hope to find that kind of mercy anywhere else? Why would we try? Life can be a pretty solitary adventure at times. No matter how many people we have around us, we still go through things that leave us feeling lonely. We all go through things that others might not know about, and that they definitely may not understand. But through it all. God's there and He gets it. He sees our hurting and understands our struggles. He knows what we're going through and the most amazing part is that He genuinely cares. All too often I think we don't reach out and ask for help because we don't want to seem weak. We don't wa...

John 15:11 NIV Well, it was a weird and strangely rough start to the week for me. Just struggling no matter what I tried. It seemed like no matter what I tried to do, it ended up going wrong and being so much harder along the way. It's kind of like I kept finding new ways to make myself miserable and things harder. But today was an amazing bounce-back day. I'm telling you from experience, a little change in perspective has a huge impact in our lives. We get told that joy is in all kinds of places around us. People tell us that it can be found in that thing over there, or this place just ahead, or hidden behind this secret trick that they've discovered. There are so many keys to joy in our world, yet so many people are miserable and hurting. Something's not adding up here! I'd venture to guess that maybe all these things that are supposed to make us happy just can't. Maybe all these secrets to happiness are just nonsense. After walking along the edge of frustrate...