The Crucible of Time ~ Closing Thoughts

Greetings Dear Reader,

Time is the crucible in which we burn.  The purpose of the crucible is to burn away that which does not belong.  It renders what remains pure and clean.  I suppose I could stop with that but you know that I will not.

We are all given the same amount of time each day.  We waste it complaining about things we cannot change or warring about the past.  We sacrifice relationships to selfishness and grudges Instead of valuing the time we have with each other.  We allow our differences to define us in the wrong way. 

I am only given so many moments in each day.  I can rehearse the past in my mind and argue with it silently.  I can bring up things with others to rehash the past or I can love them in the moment no matter what they say or do.  I can choose to invest those same moments in thinking well about how I can make that time something eternal.  The arguments in my head must be turned conversations of love, forgiveness, repentance, and faith.  I must hold them with my fallen nature and with the Father. 

When I am in those moments where others are not following n faith, I must be certain to seek Christ in that moment.  I have to think and act in love.  I must speak out of love and compassion.  I am not going to make real progress unless I focus every grain in the pinch as it possesses me on love for the Father and my fellow travelers. 

This does not mitigate the pain but it doe allow me to find peace in the pain.  It gives me higher ground to on which to travel.  It gives me a constant to follow that is irresistible.  I am aware of what I am without focus on the love and compassion of Jesus.  I understand that I can choose to live in the crucible miserable over the past instead of living in and loving in the moment.  I hope, Dear Reader that you and I can agree to live in each grain of time as those being refined to love.   It will make things much easier for all of us.

As the sands of time fall through the pinch, I leave a footprint in each moment.  I am longing to only leave impressions worth following going forward.   If you want to walk with me you are always welcome.  There is always a place for you with me Dear Reader.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

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The Crucible of Time ~ This Time

Greetings Dear Reader,

The crucible of time burns away everything that is not eternal.  We can carry lessons learned and the memory of experiences but we cannot return to that time or place and change things.  As we burn through each moment, we build grain by grain the sandstone that is the monolith of our past.

We can carry the moments where we see truth and faith win; where we see love conquer all.  We can also choose to carry the moments of failure and fear.  We get to decide if we are going to dwell on the past and try to dwell in it.  We can do the former but must do so with the right heart.  We can try to do the latter but will be left behind by that which is walking in each moment toward redemption. 

We forget who we are.  We are not physical beings having a spiritual experience.  We are spiritual beings having a physical experience.  We are given the choice of what we will do with each moment.  In that choice we choose if we will learn from the moment and what we will carry out of it. 

Each moment is the chance to begin again to use our faith to follow.  Instead we use those moments to argue with the past or wish things were a certain way.  I do this and have to shake my mind out of it.  I cannot change what is but I can use the coming moments to do better.  We can embrace that if we make the most of each second moving forward things will be better than they are.

When I visited the place of my greatest failure, I took the time to weep over my loss and the damage it did for others.  I prayed over places where I saw the Father work and then failed to carry the lessons of those moments.  There are beautiful things in this place but what I must carry forward is the lessons I have learned about my own sin and the power of God to forgive and restore.

I am finished arguing with the past.  I cannot fix the things that others will not forgive.  I can only strive to do better today.  I can only use the time I have left.  It is not possible to reverse the flow of the grains and change the choices I made.  It is in the next grains as they fall that I must work to be a better man and follow Christ more faithfully.

Let us agree Dear Reader that when we look back at those times, we will carry the love that was there.  We will remind each other of the lessons we learned and how we can now see that the Father can heal and restore things if we allow it.  Whether you choose to walk with me on this or not, I will keep you in my heart and carry no ill will against you.  One day, when all the grains have run out, we will see that all things that remain are the love that we carried with us and the love that was given to us.  That is what the crucible does.  It burns away everything else.

This Time – Lea Michele

These walls and all these picture frames
Every name they show
These halls I've walked a thousand times
Heartbreaks and valentines, friends of mine all know

I look at everything I was
And everything I ever loved
And I can see how much I've grown
And though the mirror doesn't see it
It's clear to me, I feel it
I can make it on my own

I'm not afraid of moving on and letting go
It's just so hard to say goodbye to what I know, I know

This time no one's gonna say goodbye
I keep you in this heart of mine
This time I know it's never over
No matter who or what I am
I'll carry where we all began
This time that we had, I will hold forever

This old familiar place is
Where every face is another part of me
I played a different game then
They called me a different name then
I think of all the things I did and how I wish I knew what I know now

I see how far I've come and what I got right
When I was looking for that spotlight
I was looking for myself
Got over what I was afraid of
I showed 'em all that I was made of
More than trophies on a shelf

For all the battles that we lost or might have won
I never stopped believing in the words we sung, we sung

This time no one's gonna say goodbye
I keep you in this heart of mine
This time I know it's never over
No matter who or what I am
I'll carry where we all began
This time that we had, I will hold forever

I'm looking out from the crossroads
I don't know how far away I will roll
I take a breath, I close my eyes
Your voice will carry me home

I keep you in this heart of mine
This time I know it's never over
No matter who or what I am
I'll carry where we all began
This time that we had, I will hold
This time that we had, I will hold
This time that we had, I will hold
Forever
Forever

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:

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The Crucible of Time ~ Momentary Thinking

Greetings Dear Reader,

Often, people will tell us what God thinks of us.  They will give us their opinion of what the Father thinks of our behaviour or attitudes.  They judge us and use God as their hammer.  I want to offer a perspective that we do not hear often enough.

When Elihu is expressing his concern that Job has done some great wrong that he keeps secret, he explains correctly our relationship to the thoughts of God.  Ponder this carefully.  I have been for days.  Elihu says that were the Father to stop thinking about any of us for even an instant that we would cease to exist.

It is not just that God thinks about us, but that our very existence is an extension of his thoughts.  Elihu expresses what Paul will write centuries later, “in Him we live and move and have our being.”  This mindset is the best reason I know of to cease every moment in the crucible of time.

If the idea is to find God in the moment, then the understanding of every moment is to see that the Father is already in each grain as it falls through the pinch.  He is there waiting to share it with us as we arrive. He is there sustaining that moment so that we can find him in it.  He wishes to love us, refine us, and guide us into the next moment and every one that follows until the journey back to him is complete.

When I think that God is distant or even absent, I need to remember how seminal to my faith is the understanding of this truth.  In the crucible of time, every moment is one in which I am sustained by the thoughts of God whether I acknowledge it or not.  I am kept and loved by his constant regard of me.  So are you Dear Reader.

As fellow dwellers in the crucible of time, I urge you to find as much in every moment as it burns away everything that is not good.  Only that which is in harmony the love of the Father will remain.  Seeking the Father in each moment can further this so drastically.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:

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The Crucible of Time ~ The Last Time

Greetings Dear Reader,

There is a meme that makes the circuit from time to time.  “At some point in your childhood, you and your friends went outside to play together for the last time and nobody knew it”.  I cannot find the source of the quote but its value deserves recognition.

Separation by time and tide is not always known in advance.  I did not know on a Friday during my sophomore year in college that when I said goodbye to my friend Laura, that she would be dead before our lunch plans for Monday.  When I was unkind for a moment and it really hurt her feelings, I had no idea that it would be the last moment we shared in the crucible.

The fire of time and destiny burns always but sometimes it flares into painful intensity without warning.  It burns away someone we love without so much as a “by your leave.”  The crucible does not care how we feel about it.  It fiercely burns away a piece of our heart and moves on to the next moment.

We know this is true and yet we still withhold love from each other.  We see it happen and do not learn the lesson of loving in the moment.  I carry the memory and consequences of my failure to do this.  There were people I refused to interact with for what I thought were good reasons.  I am working to mend my part of the problem. 

Still there are people we claim to love with whom we will not speak with or show love.  We cannot fail to show love and claim to love.  It does not work.  We are supposed to forgive before sunset, restore in love, and endure all things for the sake of love.  When we do not we risk that flash of the crucible claiming someone we have rejected and leaving us unable to make peace, restore the relationship, or cure our own bitterness. 

We dismiss the need to forgive and heal telling ourselves we will do it when we are ready.  This is a great lie.  Failure to forgive daily gives purchase to evil.  It gives a foothold to all of the things that destroy relationships.  We argue against forgiveness with thoughts on how we will forgive when we are ready.  We tell ourselves we will heal the relationship later, forgetting that we are not even guaranteed the next grain of sand. 

We talk about the other person’s need to do this or that first.  We say as if our own wrongs have not tempted others to give up on us.  Friends and family members who we have spurned die without warning and we must carry the hateful words we left in  their ears unresolved.  We must live with knowing we owed them love and genuine forgiveness.  We are now required to endure the crucible of time without another opportunity to show that person their value and worth just because they exist. 

We rarely know when “see you tomorrow” is a lie.  I cannot afford to dwell in this crucible with hatred in my heart.  I cannot endure the thought of not doing my best to show love to everyone in every moment and then never having another moment to show that love again.  I cannot follow Christ and carry the burden of not making the most of the moments he gives me with others.

We do not know what tomorrow holds.  I urge you Dear Reader, and remind my own heart not to carry anything that resembles anger or bitterness toward anyone.  It is just too painful and heavy for this journey.  Besides, all of us know that there are memories of the last time that are good and sweet because we treated each other well.  Those carry us on the journey and protect us from the fire in which we burn.

You never thought you were together for the last time.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:

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The Crucible of Time ~ No Wasted Time

Greetings Dear Reader,

Often, in discussing the use of time I have pointed out that there are no neutral moments.  Every instant is used for light or darkness.  Every minute is spent on good or evil.

This is a primary purpose in walking with the understanding that we must be aware always.  We must seek right and righteousness in all of our thoughts, words, and actions.  Further, it is why we must focus on loving the Father and each other with every instant of life.

You may think it puerile, but I am going to express a definition of love.  We cannot define love in our own terms.  Love must be expressed in balance with justice, holiness, goodness, and righteousness.  To try to love without the other elements, is not loving.  It is a shadow of love that eventually leaves one wanting and harmed.

If, however, we love others in balance with these other elements, love is more powerful than any force there is.  Even if those we show love in this light never respond, we have not wasted a moment.  If they treat our love with disdain and judgment or refuse to give and be loving in return, the love shown is not void.  Love given unconditionally is never wasted.

If we are to capture every moment in time and use it well, then we can only do this by focusing on finding the love of God in that moment and reflecting it on those around us.  When we claim to love others and do not do this, then we are not on a path of truth.  We are not able to use time well if we do not invest it in the two great commands.

Even if we never see the positive results of our efforts, we can journey onward knowing that we have used the moments to love others.  If we are wronged for doing right then the Father promises us that he will make all things right eventually.  That has to be enough to motivate me to continue to seek him and love others in every moment.

As we walk together Dear Reader, I want to become better at showing you love in every grain of time.  That does not mean that I will always agree with you or accept your point of view on things.  What I will do is strive to love you where you are and hope that you see the Father’s love for you in it.  I know that even if that is never enough for you that I will not have wasted a second in loving you.  When the crucible of time burns away everything else, loving others will always remain.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:

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The Crucible of Time ~ The Hour Glass

Greetings Dear Reader,

The hour glass has long been the image that helps me understand the phrase, “the fullness of time.”   A newly upended hour glass looks precariously full.  Immediately time begins to empty into the lower half of the glass.  Single grains of sand pass from the future, through the pinch of the present, and into the past.

If one views the hour glass correctly it can teach us much about time.  The first thing to do is dismiss the illusions of the hour glass.  The most important is that it does not appear as constant as it is.  As time flows through the pinch it does not seem to be moving at the same pace.

At the beginning the flow seems rapid then suddenly slow.  One would think that the greater weight of the grains at the beginning would create more pressure and increase the flow.  This is an illusion.  Also, at the end it seems to speed up again.  The truth of the hour glass is that it is constant.  Time flows in a non-elastic linear measuring out our grains until they are gone.

Even when the hour glass performs perfectly it is only a silent amoral guardian of time.  It serves time and its user and that is all.  Unfortunately, it is the user that presents the other problem because the user gets lost in the crucible of the hour glass.  In using time we too often focus on the impossible trying to be more powerful than time.  A simple experiment will prove that we are not.

Take an hour glass and put it somewhere that is comfortable and allows ease of observation.  Turn it so that the grains are at the top.  Choose a grain that falls through and watch it.  Keep track of it as long as you are able.

As the present falls into the past, other moments, now dead will cover the one you are watching.  Soon or later that single moment will be impossible to find.  When you lose track of that moment, push back and take in the entire hourglass. 

Notice how many moments of the present have gone unnoticed because you were focused on the past.  All of those moments are gone and irrecoverable.  They were lost to you whilst you focused on something that was also already lost.  Focus on the past always betrays us.

We cannot follow Christ in the present if we are focused on the past.  Every grain of the past we focus on robs us of countless moments in the present.  If we are to live in the moment then we must focus on every moment as it moves through the pinch.  We must understand the past.  We must not live in it.  If we try then the mounting moments that follow will bury us under their unrelenting weight.  We will drown in the moments that have been lost to us that we ignored.

We must live in the crucible of the pinch Dear Reader.  We must dispel the illusions that we have about time.  The only thing that will last is the love we invest in the present moment.  The last illusion I would dispel is the one we sometimes share when we upend the hour glass. 

We turn it, we start a new day, investing in our routines.  We follow our practices.  We think that we are bored because we go to the same job, do the same tasks, or make the same commute.  We think we are on a wheel when really, we are on a linear journey. We are on a “spiral never-ending in an unrelenting course.”  Each turn may use the same grains but it is never the same time, ever.  The only grain we have is the present and the only thing that survives the death of the moment is the love we invest in that moment.  Everything else burns away in the crucible of time.

I must own every grain given me with all the love I can give and accept.  In this will I find that as the grains flow through the pinch I carry with me the only thing from the past that will survive,  It is the only thing that can keep me moving in the moments.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:

Support Page on Patreon: www.patreon.com/aramisthorn

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The Crucible of Time ~ Opening Thoughts

Greetings Dear Reader,

Time is the crucible in which we burn.  The actual quote is, “Time is the fire in which we burn.”   It is from Star Trek Generations.  I see time more as a crucible.  To us it is am eternal consumable.   We see it from the inside realizing that we have a finite amount of it but think of the world as timeless. 

Yesterday, most of us were given 365 more days to use for good or ill.  Some of us did not make it to today.  Tomorrow is promised to no one.  Some will not see another Spring, baseball game, Thanksgiving, or Christmas.  We are given a limited amount of time in which to refine our faith and following.  We have limited opportunities to do good to others.

In each moment of interaction, we choose whether or not we are going to show love to others or not.  When someone acts or speaks, we choose.  We are in the moment and decide if we are going to show love or not.  We choose whether an individual is worthy of our love, kindness, and respect in that moment. 

We become the sum of those moments.  No one wakes up bitter and angry on day 12,410 of life.  He or she has built to that point through constant choices of anger and through years of holding onto resentment over things that are past.  We lose moments where we can love others by focusing on what has already been done.  We do not go suddenly mad over stress or anxiety.   We become the result of interactions with others when we choose to hold onto the strife instead of seeing how much we are loved.

I want to examine time for a few days.  How we look at it and treat it determines much about how we treat each other.  My favorite image is that of the hourglass.  We will talk about that more tomorrow.  For today I want to ponder the vast nature of time and how it serves to refine us all.  It is a commodity to used wisely to make the most of the journey through the world back to HOME.  Walk with me and share your thoughts on time Dear Reader.  I always have time to listen to you.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:

Support Page on Patreon: www.patreon.com/aramisthorn

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Web Page:  www.aramisthorn.com

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