One of my neighbours is a farrier, he puts shoes on horses. He has taught me a lot about growing as a person and neighbour. One day, while over at his place, he fired up his forge and in a moment he had a red hot glowing horse shoe pinched in his tongs. Over and over he moved the steel in and out of the heat, hammering and shaping the metal. I learned that there is a lot going on in that steel. At first glance, two pieces of metal might look the same, but inside much more is at work.
We do more than bend the metal, we can temper it, too. This changes how the metal is used. Tempering metal is a process of heating and cooling in precise ways that change the capacity of the metal to be used for certain purposes. Age and the composition of the metal can affect the temper, it holds a kind of history, having been forged and perhaps reforged over time. If the metal is too hard, ill-tempered, it will shatter and break under certain conditions. The goal is to temper a metal that is both strong and resilient, able to withstand great pressure without cracking under the weight. This can only happen through a process.
When metal loses its temper, it will not only crack or break under pressure, but as my neighbour says, “clear use and intent go out the window.” Tempered metal is valuable because it can find a place, it can be helpful, even essential. Metal that loses its temper is unpredictable.
Temper comes from Old English, temprian, which means “to moderate, bring to a proper or suitable state, to modify some excessive quality, to restrain within due limits.” In metal it means to make something both hard and elastic. In us, it can mean so much more.
A tempered person is someone who has been through experiences that have shaped them, making them resilient and able to step in when the time is right. To be tempered means that a person has been through a process that has prepared them for whatever unexpected force might bear down on them. They are ready and able to stand in hard places. But even more interesting to me, perhaps, is the observation by Father John of Kronstadt who said that when an iron is left in fire, it glows the same red hot as the fire itself. He believed that we are tempered by God, as we abide in his love for us, we can glow with the same love. We are tempered, in his view, not by hardship necessarily, but by love, and by God’s love for us.
So when we lose our temper, we are not just getting angry, we are actually forgetting what is true about us. We were forged in love and for love. Anger and fear make us brittle under the pressures that bear down on us. But love tempers us and prepares us to handle whatever comes next. In our neighbourhoods we need temperate people, people who have been shaped in ways that help them stand in love when forces around us want us to crack into hate and worse.
In these days of fear with viruses, tumbling economies, and blockades, we will be testing our temper. Maybe this is why Jesus said to his followers, “remain in my love.” Stay in the forge. Glow bright red, burn hot with love so that you will be ready to face the pain of this world with love.
