Tension

We’ve seen it. Often felt it. Perhaps we’ve even been the cause of it.

Tension is most often the strain of a relationship, or the anxiety we feel when people react negatively, or a situation gets topsy-turvy when we’d prefer something straight forward. 

Tension is not exactly a happy place whether it pertains to a relationship or a circumstance. Though as writers, we weave it into our plots, and into the lives of our characters because we know it’s the best course to creating a story that insists another page is turned in search of resolution.

Though I love the suspense, I not only anticipate everything being wrapped up by the last page, I expect it. Thank goodness God chose to give us the book of Revelation, which reminds me of another definition of tension. And one I’ve heard used quite frequently lately—the act of, or state of being stretched. 

When you apply this definition of tension to our faith, you might say as Christians, we live in time period that stretches between the finished work of the cross and the coming King. Our hearts have been washed yet we must continually seek grace. We are not of this world, but are not yet living in our promised one. Faith by definition is the substance of things hoped for, but not yet seen…so to live by faith means we live in the state of being stretched to not just anticipate but expect what will be.

I just love that. I hope you do, too, because I expect the coming King and His Kingdom will be beyond our wildest imagination.  

 Penelope makes her home in Indiana, where she lives with her family and serves in her church. A student of the Word, she occasionally teaches Bible studies or Precepts. She holds a BS from Methodist College and a MS from Boston University, but is pursuing the life of a writer.

A Powerful Voice and A Furrow So Deep are Christian Romances published through Anaiah Press, LLC. She recently signed another contract for the publication of a Christmas novella.