"This is NOT a Test"

They say that our God tests us,
But it is not like they think;
It's not to see of what we're made
That life brings us to the brink

And life's not a trial by jury;
No sum of wrongs and rights.
It's not to prove our mettle;
That we suffer painful rites.

Our testing is to temper;
To strengthen and to cure;
An annealing and a firing;
That makes our spirits pure.

God does not need to try us;
God knows just how we're made.
Life's not about temptations;
And some rules to be obeyed.

No, at life's fire God smelts us
To work out evil's taint;
In fire and ice God tempers us;
To draw us out...
-a saint.