Blessed Are The Peacemakers

  This final part of the series is longer and slower. It turns its attention to what comes after formation, not the fire, not the forge but the demanding (and often overlooked) work of carrying what has been shaped. I believe it’s worth the time it asks of you. Part Seven: The Vessel The fire has done its work. The hammering has ceased. The metal rests, warm and altered, no longer raw, no longer molten. Nothing dramatic is happening now. This is the moment most people overlook. After the sparks. After the pressure. After the long season of staying . The forge has formed something, but formation alone is not the end. Strength without containment fractures. Heat without purpose dissipates. Even refined metal must still be shaped into something that can hold, carry and serve without failing. Fire reveals. The forge forms. But something must carry what is formed This is the question that follows every season of refining. After all this heat and hammering, now what? What am I for? Scrip...

  We actually put this together several months ago. It has lived in my drafts being reread, tweaked, rephrased and then politely ignored. From the beginning, we felt genuinely convicted by the Spirit to do this. That part never wavered. What did waver was the timing. We kept revisiting it, asking whether we were waiting on clarity, courage or just divine intervention - preferably in the form of a neon sign that says “POST IT, YOU COWARDS” (The sign never came. Apparently God prefers we use our agency.) What finally pushed us over the edge? The courage of a friend who recently posted something very difficult- something that cost her friendships and she spoke her truth anyway. Watching her bravery reminded us that waiting for the "perfect" moment is often just fear in disguise. So, THANK YOU, brave friend, for lighting the match under our hesitant backsides. Your example was the nudge we needed.  Sometimes the difference between “not yet” and “I’m scared” is thinner than we’d l...

  Part Six: The Forge Where scripture becomes seed, paradox becomes doorway, and story becomes surgery for the soul. Seven weeks. Seven lessons. One nervous system reborn. Opening Scene: The Forge The forge is already awake before the smith arrives. Coals glow low and steady. They aren’t wild or raging, but hot enough to change the nature of what enters them. The air smells of iron and ash. A bellows breathes life into the fire, each pull deepening the heat without letting it run away. A bar of iron is placed into the coals. At first, nothing seems to happen. Then the color shifts. Dull gray turns to red. Red deepens toward orange. The metal doesn’t resist. It yields to the heat because it can’t do otherwise. When the iron is ready, the smith lifts it with tongs and lays it across the anvil. The first strike of the hammer lands clean and loud. Sparks scatter across the floor like brief stars. The sound is rhythmic, intentional. Each blow has a purpose. Too h...

  Gossip and the Stories We Carry When I was younger, there were a couple of people who didn’t like me. I know, I know, very hard to believe. 😇 I still don’t know all the reasons, beyond the fact that they were teenagers and I was not. They were about seventeen. I was twenty one.I was the kind of Christian who thought conviction and volume were basically the same thing, which probably came across as self righteous.. Maybe I was self righteous? Heck, who am I kidding. I was a twenty one year old Jesus freak. Of course I was. What I do know  is that they spoke about me to someone else. That person had never had a single conversation with me. Not one. Still, based entirely on what she had heard, she decided she had no interest in getting to know me. When I attempted to engage her, she rejected me. The decision had already been made. She had “heard enough.” That moment taught me something I didn't have language for yet. Gossip doesn't just misrepresent people. It preempts rela...

  The Fire - Why God Rejects Lukewarm Neutrality Where scripture becomes seed, paradox becomes doorway, and story becomes surgery for the soul. Seven weeks. Seven lessons. One nervous system reborn. From Shared Strain to Shared Testing If Part Four taught us how to carry weight together, this chapter explores what happens when that shared strain is tested. The yoke teaches alignment. Fire reveals integrity. Fire arrives to clarify. It exposes what can endure and what cannot. Fire Is Not the Enemy Fire is one of the most misunderstood images in scripture. We associate it with destruction. But God uses it for revelation. Fire doesn't create what is present. It reveals what already exists. Gold shows itself as gold. Straw shows itself as straw. Why “Lukewarm” Is Unsafe Revelation 1 (3 in KJV) is often misunderstood. God doesn't compare enthusiasm levels. He names a spiritual condition that resists change. Lukewarmness feels peaceful because it avoids...