Dear Trials

Dear Trials,

One might think that you and I are old friends, when in fact I am not at all fond of you. Although we are not friends, it is fair to say that we are more than just acquaintances. You and I, we are so familiar to one another, and I cannot deny that you have made me better.

When you come around, you challenge me, and when I rise to meet your challenge, whether I fail or succeed to overcome it, I am stronger and wiser for it. I know that I am refined by refiners fire and I shall come forth as gold, so I will continue learning to lift my chin up and welcome you Trials.

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9

See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
Isaiah 48:10

When you come around, I am reminded of the love that I have from so many amazing people who reside in my corner. How easy it is to look at love as commonplace or to take it for granted. Trials awaken the hearts of our loved ones and stir them to action. Prayers are lifted up on my behalf. Acts of kindness abound. My loved ones cheer me on with sincere fervor and a great hope for me. I am overwhelmed by that outpouring of love.

Love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other.
Romans 12: 10

When you come around, I see God's hand at work all around me. Oh Trials, if you only knew all of the things that God has brought me through. Do you remember you remember the moves on faith, the jobless season, the hurricane, the brushes with death? God the Father has provided for me in impossible times. God the son has already paid the ultimate price and suffered the greatest suffering for me. And God, the Holy Spirit gives me the strength to endure all things with grace that is greater than my own.

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
2 Corinthians 12:9

So then dear Trials, come and go as you please. Let us carry on in our relationship with no labels and only mutual respect. For I know that God has placed you in my life for a reason and ultimately for my good.

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
Romans 8:28

On again, off again,

Moriah

Dear Bullies

You know who you are.

Do you know who I am?

I am the daughter of a proud man and a strong woman. We are made of thick brown skin and immigrant blood. We have lived from North to South and in between with all kinds of people from all kinds of places. You do not scare me.

I am a sister to four individuals who never really learned to fight, except with watchful eyes and careful words. We can wait for many moons, but when the wait is over, we will not be silent. You do not intimidate me.

I am the reader and watcher and listener of endless stories that tell the tales of the underdog's triumph and the villain's defeat, despite all odds. You do not remove my hope.

I am the child of the most high God, who gives me the strength to turn the other cheek, and wisdom to know when it is time to stand up, or speak out, or to simply shake the dust from my feet and move on from you. You have no power over me.

In spite of all that I am, you will think you have defeated me.

You will meet in secret and speak of dark plans to cut my legs out from underneath me. You will smile before an audience, even as you cut me and watch me bleed. And when I get up again and again, as time heals the wounds, you will walk past me with that terrible gleam in your eye and smirk on your lips because you think I am cowering in your great shadow. You will quite possibly never realize that my silence is only a hopeful show of strength - a precursor to the thing that follows when silence fails.

You will go on with your incredible prejudice and your unfounded hatred. For you and I know that bullies do not just prey on "the weak", but on those who would dare to defy them or differ from them.

Before I opened my mouth to speak, I defied you. How dare I, and who am I to come into this place you call your own, and act as though I belonged there? And what on earth made me think that I was entitled to the same respect and common decency that you were?

That will never change. This place is not only for you but for all. And you and I share the same inherent value, so yes I am entitled to the very same common decency that you are. A difference in color is simply that and nothing more. That fancy piece of paper that certified your education, was not a certification of your intelligence, and a lack of fancy paper on my part is not a lack of mine. I have a mind and a work ethic that can kick your hiney. Means mean very little in the face of real adversity - when you take them all away who can survive?

I can. I have. I always will.

That is why I am unbreakable. You and I both would be better off if you would stop trying.

If you would put the same amount of energy that you put into hatred and bullying into loving and kindness instead, you would find that the world would be a better place for all of us.