How Does Hardship Shape Us?

How Does Hardship Shape Us? Hardship and suffering visit us all.   Sometimes it arrives loudly, rattling the foundations of our world. What we confidently believed in suddenly feels fragile, unstable.   More often, though, our hardest moments arrive unnoticed by the outer world. They unfold quietly in the privacy of the heart.   The Read More

Refining Trail

  Refining Trail Lying in my tent, I’m looking through the mesh at stars flickering between the forest branches. After hiking twenty miles on the rocky trail, my body is spent. Yet my mind refuses to rest. Every sense is on full alert, especially hearing. My military years guarding prison camps in Siberia trained my Read More

The Icy Anvil of God

The train chugs along the seemingly endless Trans-Siberian Railroad,* every one of the 54 berths in our wagon occupied. It reeks of sweaty feet, cheap alcohol, and Ramen noodles. The stifling heat and din of humanity keep sending me to the far end of the train for some semblance of fresh air. Everything in me Read More

Stepping Out and Up

We stand atop a hard-pack snowdrift on the shore of the deepest lake in the world. Nestled within Siberia’s mountains, Lake Baikal is a mile deep and contains 20 percent of the world’s fresh water. The sun peeks over the mountains behind us, illuminating a vast expanse of snow and ice. We silently contemplate the Read More

The Forge

A forge transforms nondescript iron into something useful through the process of refining fire. Аs the blacksmith selects a scrap of rusty metal, he envisions its potential. He lays it under red-hot coals until it glows, then takes it to the anvil and hammers that moldable piece into a valuable, definitive tool. No longer just Read More