The Tension Where Truth Lives

The Weight Between Words With Pastor Charles Howse

The Power to Call Bad Things Good

There is a tension many of us live in but rarely name…

We want God…
We want His promises…
We want His power…

And we want them without pain.

Not because we’re shallow…
Not because we’re faithless…
But because we’re human…

We don’t always get to choose what we want.

We would rather have:

  • breakthrough without bruising
  • promise without process
  • resurrection without waiting through Friday

That doesn’t make us weak…
It makes us honest.

But Scripture keeps telling the story a different way.

Not as punishment…
Not as cruelty…
But as formation through faithfulness.

It invites us into a journey where worship sometimes happens while wounded…
Where the pit comes before the palace…
Where the clay is marred before it is shaped…
Where suffering does not cancel calling—it clarifies it.

The psalmist looked back and said,
“It was good for me that I was afflicted…”

Paul echoed the same truth from another angle—
that suffering produces perseverance…
perseverance produces character…
and character produces hope…

That kind of hope doesn’t come from avoidance.
It comes from endurance.

This is not a theology that chases pain.
It is a faith that refuses to waste it.

Some of the most honest worship you will ever offer
will not come from victory…
but from vulnerability.

From praising God when the wound is still tender…
From trusting Him when the promise feels delayed…
From believing that what feels bad now
can still be used for good later.

Calling bad things “good” doesn’t mean they were right.
It means God was faithful in them.

It means you survived what should’ve destroyed you.
It means you learned what comfort never taught you.
It means the process did something to you
that arrival alone never could.

The truth is…
many of us want the crown without the cross…
but Scripture insists the order matters.

Friday comes before Sunday.
The pit comes before the palace.
The pressing comes before the pouring.

And somehow—
by grace—
what we never would have chosen
becomes the very thing God uses to prepare us.

That is the power…
to look back at the hard places
and say…

It hurt…
but it wasn’t wasted.
Thetensionwheretruthlives.org

Pastor Charles E. Howse Jr
Beth-El Baptist Church
Wholeness 4 LIFE
Charles Howse
Loving The Unlovable:A Love Without Limits

Published by

Pastor Charles Howse Jr
Pastor Charles E. Howse Jr. is a preacher, pastor, and author whose calling lives at the intersection of proclamation and reflection. With decades of ministry experience, he has spent his life speaking to the visible struggles of people while gently naming the quieter battles they carry within. His voice is shaped by Scripture, lived experience, and a deep pastoral concern for those navigating faith, failure, leadership, and the long work of healing. Whether from the pulpit or the page, his work consistently points readers and listeners back to the grace of God that meets us where we truly are. Through writing, Pastor Howse explores the tension where truth lives—the space between certainty and doubt, strength and vulnerability, public faith and private wrestlings. His reflections draw from biblical narratives, personal insight, and pastoral observation, inviting readers to slow down,and think deeply. He writes not to perform, but to bear witness—to grace that restores, love that endures, and a God who remains faithful even when we falter. This blog is an extension of that calling: honest, thoughtful, and rooted in the hope that truth still heals.

Leave a comment