Forged By Faith

Hebrews 12:3 NIV What is emulation? Is it a manmade and thus mundane measure of mere mimicry? Is it the supposed sincerity societally seen inside all such forms of familiar flattery? Is it an audacity to do that which another’s done, chosen simply because you enjoy the looks of the outcome? Is it the courage to consider the content of the contest contended against along the way toward said outcome? Is it a willingness to withstand such war as that won by whomever it is that we seek to mimic? Is it truly nothing but our seeking to copy only all that only another has chosen to attempt? Is it an attempt to opt for a path already blazed so as to avoid the barbs and blood as are won within being the first? Is it a thirst for trust, both that seen in us and thus us of them from whom we’ve gleaned this apparent daring to do as they themselves have done? Whatever it is it is indeed a form and function of mirroring. It’s a matter made of our making our minds to, for whatever reason that even ou...

Galatians 6:9 NIV What is persistence? Is it a person with an almost personal vendetta against compromise? Is it a personal resolve to never allow any single hope to dissolve? Is it a deep-seated belief that there’s always something better we can see, something more we can be, something we can do in order to make it through whatever we have to in order to see that better we can be? Is it knowing in your heart that, despite everything only continuing to fall apart, that at some point it’ll prove to all fall into place? Is it a place we go inside our minds in which all we find is a violent unwillingness to quit? Is it the purpose of patience? Is it a byproduct of a patience’s purpose? Sadly, if anything, it seems to be something many here are forgetting. And that likely because, well, yeah, doing literally anything is wearying. Doing anything is tiring. Doing anything demands an almost exhaustive amount of everything from hope to effort to belief to trust and that in both we as us but so...

1 Peter 1:8 NIV What is patience? Is it perhaps painful as proven in the past in which we’d waited for things to come that maybe never did? Is it quite heavy in the present as still we wait for what we hope are days better than these we’re in? Is it something of a stranger which always seems a danger as it’s designed inside a mind willing to risk settling for whatever is for whatever isn’t yet? Is it a curiosity that can’t stop considering the gravity of the reality that yet isn’t? Is it a matter of reality that, though we all really don’t enjoy, is perhaps there to help us learn better what enjoyment is so that we can experience it more fully whenever we get wherever it waits? Is it something that only we have to endure or maybe something that others endure on our part too? Is it true that it’s hard, scary, oftentimes somewhat deflating? Yes, but I suggest that this may be patience’s biggest benefit as, well, in truth we need that more than we could ever know inside what is this hole ...

1 Peter 1:7 NIV What is scarcity? Is it something seen so seldomly that it’s all but almost scary whenever it is? Is it a matter of such mystery that in truth nobody really knows where it is, what it is and thus has little idea as to how it looks or of what it feels? Is it a feeling of something being so rare that even when we do see it, feel it, hear it there we feel still this still chill as the doubt inside demands we deny be it might? Is it something that indeed might not be seeing as how it is so rare to see and hard to hold? Is it even something many if any of us can know considering it’s something which itself may exist here all alone? Is it a loan of what is a hope that hasn’t a price and thus can’t be bought nor then sold as none knows of what it’s worth as it may well be the only of its kind upon this earth? Is it a matter meant to be measured by this earth and the many things which do exist within a plenty within this place, and that over against the immeasurably more which ...