Tried By Fire
WORDS & MUSIC
Dennis Jernigan
July 14, 2022

During the month of January 2022, one of my sons was thrust into a horrible ordeal that would take nearly a year to get through…and all I could do was watch and offer comfort and support. As a dad, I wanted to ‘fix’ the problem, but realized very quickly that I could not - would not - be able to do so. The details are not mine to share, but he has given me permission to share the basics.
He was wounded emotionally and mentally and had his faith severely tested to the point of questioning all he believed in. His suffering was intense and overwhelming to the point of feeling defeated and feeling like giving up. He moved back home and set up a portion of my studio as his own work station and worked from home - in the same room as me - for a year. For me, it was like I had died and gone to heaven…just working ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with my son. A treasure I will not soon forget.
Through the course of that entire year we had many one on one conversations in which he bared his heart to me. After several such encounters, he asked me what I thought about what he was having to go through. I told him that the pain he and our family were going through was worth it for the sheer amount of intimacy and honesty and love I felt between him and me. That may sound selfish in a way, but it is the truth of how I felt…especially given that I have Parkinson’s and life seems somehow more precious than ever to me.
His birthday is July 15. As I pondered what to give him as a token of my love for him, the Lord filled my heart with the words and melody of the first verse and chorus of this song and I recorded and gave it to him. In January of 2023 - almost exactly a year after his fiery trial had begun - the Lord gave me the second verse. I added it to the previous recording and sent it to him again as a way of saying how proud I was of him for the way he faced the fire and came out shining like gold.
A year after all this began, he moved back to the city he now calls home, tried and tested by fire, and a shining example of how to live honestly with an adventurous joyful, attitude and extend love to others he meets along the way. May this song encourage you to do the same.
Dennis Jernigan

Examine me, LORD, and put me to the test;
Refine my mind and my heart.
Psalm 26:2 NASB