Forged By Faith

James 4:8 NIV What if the unseen duality we’ve all but come to insist upon in life has left us doubling the distance between here and hope? For this life anymore seems the longest of roads. An ever-twisting tempest of trial and turmoil always triumphantly trying our temperament and tranquility. Each day arrives in a violent sort of haste that seems only to lay waste our best intentions already invented for the day ahead that’s all but already passed us by before we’ve even begun. Such is the confounding curiosity of life as we’ve lost it, for whether we’ve the gall to agree or not, that is all we’ve done with our time down here. Just lost it to loving the life we’re losing, leaving unwelcomed our awareness of the wrath which we’ve earned for all this wandering into only wondering without the willingness to start walking. That’s become a rather confusing contemplation around my head of late. This idea that I may have had myself roundly convinced of something that I’ve never been doing. ...

Psalm 121:1 NIV Perhaps one of the few things that costs nothing but seems as if it asks everything of us to ask for as our pride cannot bear the brunt of our being so self-belittled as to our admitting we need help. It’s another of those entirely strange misunderstandings that have all become all but foundational to humanity’s failings. That needing help is evidence of our not being enough or knowing enough is obvious, wouldn’t need the assistance if we could manage alone. But to do as we always seem to and assume that it’s even beyond that to the seeming as if we’re not enough, not worth enough, not worth anything simply for the fact that we need help is entirely counterproductive in that it keeps us stuck in a place we don’t want to be, just because we don’t want to seem insufficient. But friends, we are. Insufficiency is something that defines us all in many ways. Now we may try to paint on a happy face and pretend away all of life’s problems, but that doesn’t make them really diss...

Isaiah 55:6 NIV Seems anymore that I see so many questions that I’ve insisted go unanswered all these years, leaving me just now wondering if I’ve perhaps missed the gravity of this opportunity. Did I find the heaviness of hope too late for sake of my fear of proving unable to shoulder the load of the sort of surrender deserved of this faith? Did I happen to ignore the many open doors that God had wanted me to walk through as I was running instead toward all the things that I knew I couldn’t miss? Did I focus on all that’s left me faithless and foolish, favoring my ability’s need for ease over my soul screaming that’s been starving for life, for hope, for meaning that might mean something more than I’ve made my life seem to mean? Did I find the heaviness of hope too late for that hope to take root and grow into the childlike belief that’s meant to build a bridge that I cross only to burn so that I don’t return to a wasted life I’ve always loved? For that is indeed the trek I take most ...

Jeremiah 17:5 NIV My strength comes from the Lord alone, not from the many opinions of man which will prove merely perspectives that can have no say in the ultimate determination of a life’s worth. Sounds quite the contrary to this culture of collapsing chaos we’ve constructed into this destruction we see deepening by the day. No, down here at this rock bottom of disbelief and division we’ve designed as if a home fit for these kings we see ourselves each to be, well, we’ve all but lost sight of a singular service given in joyous surrender unto our only hope. Rather we’ve settled instead for the hope of appeasement achieved through affirmation affording us only an image of love hiding perhaps the worst kind of hatred underneath. For to please man is a snare which enslaves us to people’s opinions, preferences, pretenses and pride. And down that road, God is only inevitably forgotten. Because the Word which He breathed for our benefit is profoundly posed upon this problem proven in servin...

1 Timothy 4:12 NIV What is the age of wisdom? At what point are we allowed an entrance ticket to see it? Does there come a specific time, a date or day upon which we’ve finally crossed the line of some socially agreed upon and therefore measurable amount of knowledge that’s considered enough to construct the opening of insight? Can perspective be more perfectly proven by the aged? Indeed, does there, like alcohol and after parties, exist a limit wherein we must be this tall before we’re allowed to ride along the rails of reason? Is the rationale of rationality reserved for only those most readily revered and respected, rights received only after years of undertaking the study of the art of sagaciousness? Well, you’d certainly think so if you were to listen to the world’s expectations for one to be considered worth listening to. Indeed, this place seems to have quite strict requirements most firmly planted in place for one to be worth the humility needed to hear whatever they may have t...

2 Timothy 2:15 NIV It appears as though we’ve once again flipped the script into another failure flopping around on the ground unable to stand for anything that means anything that can in any way accomplish anything for anyone. Because although somewhat antiquated and potentially fading ever rapidly still, to do one’s best is still the best we can give to whatever or whomever we feel the need to honor or assist. And yet as such is a mindset almost archaic in the opinion of this world on fire, it seems anymore that our best is being given only to what we feel is best for us. We live our everyday wasting away every hour taking each and every second for granted assuming that such selfish focus is going to accomplish for us the safety, sovereignty, success and satisfaction that we’ve come to assume make life’s meaning. But my wondering is what can life mean if all it means is what I think is best for me? What profit is there to be found inside what’s best for me as determined by me, for me...