We all spend our lives being shaped by something. Sometimes for good, sometimes for bad. There is no escaping this. When I asked myself “what is The Ink Forge to me?” the driving thought that came out was shaping; as honest as I can stand, as brutal as truth can muster and as beautiful as Sovereignty can shape inside of me. To write how God is shaping me. That is The Ink Forge to me. It’s more than journaling and music. It’s a place of hammering, learning and refining. If I’m to be totally honest with you, it’s the white flag of surrender to a calling that is measured out in words.
The prophet Jeremiah wrote that God had made His Word “fire in his bones.” What a thought, right? He explained that there was something holy burning inside of him, a God-calling he could feel in his bones. Jeremiah couldn’t keep silent about the burning in his bones even if he wanted to. Well, I’m certainly no Jeremiah, but God has placed something inside of me too. You’re looking at it. And just like Jeremiah, I can’t hide it any longer. I won’t. It doesn’t matter if you like it or if you don’t. It doesn’t matter if there is a big following. It doesn’t matter if this turns into another book or not. It doesn’t matter if there are many subscribers or comments. What matters is the “fire.” What matters is, “am I obedient with what He has given me?” This is not cynicism. This is not skepticism. This is what The Ink Forge is to me because this is what my God has done to me.
It’s a strange thing to have a calling that puts to words the things that God won’t allow you to keep silent. It’s also crazy convicting. How do I hide from my own sermons? The answer is: I can’t—at least not forever. Believe me, I’ve tried running from both– sermons and callings. It just doesn’t work. Besides, I’m all out of excuses. The God of great callings didn’t leave me any. Come to think of it, why should He? But He did leave me with something— something precious to house the burning. Like Jeremiah, God left something tempered to harness the fire in my bones.
He has made my desire for His calling greater than my fear of failing.
It took years to do it—years, but He did. This is what I desire for every reader that comes to The Ink Forge. I can’t hide what God has done to shape me anymore than a flame could hide in that old prophet. I can’t tell you that it’s been easy, but I can tell you without a doubt in my mind, whatever God has caused to be fire in your bones was never meant to be hidden. Never…
God shapes here at the Forge. As sure as a spark finds life, touched by the breath of the bellow’s wind, so a man finds his life by the touch of the Spirit’s wind upon him. God has come to shape him, and what comes next is other worldly. So, bring your hammer; bring your pen, but most of all, bring your heart. Somewhere inside of us all is the high calling of an obedience greater than any fear of failing.
Welcome to The Ink Forge…
