Tag Archives: Poetry

Reconciled

13 Monday Feb 2023

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Hello Readers!

My shoulder injury acted up so I couldn’t type up a post for the Isaiah 45:7 study. Instead, I’m posting a poem I wrote years ago after a particularly devastating crisis. The poem still resonates with me and makes me think of 2 Corinthians 5:19: “It was God (personally present) in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favor with Himself, not counting up and holding against (men) their trespasses (but cancelling them), and committing to us (of the restoration to favor)” (Amplified).

While living any aspect of the Christian Life is impossible without the Holy Spirit, perhaps especially so is seeing those who have done us great wrong as beloved of and reconciled to God. But, because the Holy Spirit dwells within us, it is possible to see even those who have terribly hurt us with the eyes of Jesus Christ and know what His heart longs for them. That is the message I tried to convey in this poem. I hope the poem blesses you.

Reconciled
How could I have made such a mistake?
How could I have missed when he lied?
My God, where are you?-I looked deep inside;
Where are You? Where are You?, I cried.
I'm a fool, a failure, I've damaged my pride,
How could I have not seen at all?
My God, where are You?-I looked deep inside;
Where are You? Where are You?, I cried.
I am flooded with doubts-they come on all sides,
I cannot escape them-I've tried.
My God, where are You? I searched far and wide;
Where are You? Where are You?, I cried.
Did I ignore them? The warnings? The signs?
Were they in fact there all the time?
My God, where are You? I feel like I've died.
Where are You? Where are You?, I cried.
Perhaps I was wrong-the Shepherd's voice,
Perhaps I can't hear it at all.
My God, where are You? I looked deep inside;
Are You there? I need You?, I cried.
I am here, He answered, I was here all along,
Every moment-along for the ride.
My God, where were You? I searched far and wide,
I need You to hold me!, I cried.
Always, My Child, you are here in my hand,
Be still and know I am Yours.
My God, forgive me!, I sobbed and I cried.
Help me forgive him, I've tried.
My blood covers all things, both his faults and yours-
Do not let them trouble you more.
My God, I thank you. I breathed and I sighed.
I know it's in You I abide.

Resolution

02 Monday Jan 2023

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Welcome to Renaissance Woman and the first post of 2023!

I will be continuing my study of Isaiah 45:7 in the upcoming weeks but, for today, I am sharing a poem. This poem is inspired by one of my all time favorites: [i carry your heart with me (i carry it in] by E.E. Cummings. You can read it here. 

Resolution
My Love, we've counted down another year
As years are measured by the clock
Time has come to remember and
Spend a moment taking stock
Of where we've been and where we are
How far we've come and have yet to go
To make a brand-new resolution
Though what may come I cannot know.

My Love, we've ascended heights
Far above all I could have dreamt
But lows there have been as well
Traversing them left me spent
You, My Love, were always with me
You led, You guided, sustained, upheld
I must admit-as I look back-
There's been no good thing You've withheld.

My Love, I look to this new year
One resolution only can there be
And that is to not resolve at all
Because I do not know-I cannot see
No resolution-I choose Your rest
For I do know this one thing is true
Day by day, age to age,
You bring me deeper into You.

The wonder is we are never apart
I am carried in Your heart-I carry You in my heart.

Desideratum

17 Monday Oct 2022

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View From the Top of Knob Hill in Edwards, CO

This week’s post is a poem inspired by various musings. The study I’ve been conducting on Isaiah 45:7 has been foremorst in my mind and I was recently blessed with the opportunity to spend some time in nature. I had expected it would be a time to more deeply experience the Holy Spirit and, while it was, it didn’t happen the way I thought it would. I’ve been thinking on that experience as well and then remembered 1 Kings 19:11-13. The result of all of that is this poem. 

Desideratum
I had a great gift given me
To seek a place I could be still
I had come to the trail's head
And I started up the hill
I felt myself battered & crushed
Convinced all Man touches he destroys
And I needed time to be away
Escape from all the noise.

I wanted time alone with You
Without my mind being swarmed
By all the screeching clamoring
I wished a deeper connection formed
With no more concrete underfoot
I was sure I'd hear the sound
Of Your voice-but though I listened close
I heard nothing from the ground.

A storm was brewing in the mountains
And though it wouldn't reach me for some time
A breeze arose which refreshed and cooled
Soothed me during my climb
I was sure as I ascended
And the air around me thinned
I'd hear You speaking loud and clear
But You were not in the wind.

At last I reached the hilltop
There was no one else around
I sat down to rest a bit
On a small bench I had found
I wondered if I'd hear You now
That I sat still on my own
But all I had was certainty
I was not sitting there alone.

Your Presence was there with me
And at once I began to sing
A song of Your lovingkindness
I felt my soul within take wing
Buoyed by no strength of mine
But a stirring deep inside
I heard You sing along with me
From that place where You abide.

Nature is all well and good
It is important to take rest
But I need not ever search for You
I remember how I'm blessed
In You I live and have my being
Your Spirit lives inside of me
And I do not need to look elsewhere
We exist in seamless unity.

I rise and begin my descent
In a very different mood
Than the one I had started in
I am healed and renewed
This truth I have I must declare
Perhaps I will write a poem
And tell all Your Love Purpose
Is to make each heart Your home.



In the Garden

25 Monday Apr 2022

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This poem is inspired by Song of Solomon 2:10-13.

In the Garden
I blink and find I am
in a long and darkened hall
The door I thought had opened
for me was not mine at all
"God doesn't close but what He opens"
others call as they brush by
They mean to offer comfort
but all I want to do is cry
I don't understand all the locked doors
or why You leave me so bereft
Your presence is always with me
but You don't say why I'm left
alone in this darkened hall
with windows and doors locked up tight
I have to grope as I make my way
searching for a glimmer of light

Finally at the end of the hall
a door opens the merest crack
I ought to rush but I'm hesitant
but there is no going back
I look through the door opened for me
unsure just what to expect
Never I could I have guessed
this barren and dry aspect
of wilderness waiting for me
once I step through the open door
Would be the thing You want for me
I think I'm too heart sore
to walk the wilderness again
though I do long to obey
Your voice-I hear you call to me
"Rise up, my love, and come away"

Step by step I wander through
this dry and thirsty land
There are no colors to assuage my eyes
as I struggle through the sand
For a time there is relentless heat
but then I swear I feel a breeze
I blink my dry and reddened eyes
and see that there are trees
I hear birdsong come from them
there is cool green grass below
now everywhere I turn my gaze
bushes and flowers grow

I don't know when it happened
that hot and barren wilderness
had utterly transformed 
into a garden of such lusciousness
the likes of which I never dreamed
nor caught the merest glimmer of
until I had obeyed all You said
and trusted in Your love

Meditation From A Bridge

25 Monday Apr 2022

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Meditation From A Bridge
I stand alone and listen
To the water rushing
Over obstacles it's flowing
Ever onward it is heading
Wherever it will go
If only time were not a river
In one direction surging
From past to future moving
Every instant carrying
Passed mistakes of long ago
If I could ride that river backwards
To those mistakes I am wishing
I had the option of fixing
Certain I could knowing
Everything I now know
I stand and watch the water
This is idle thinking
New mistakes I would be making
Besides time is ongoing
I cannot reverse the flow.

Your peace is like a river
Ever swelling
Never ceasing
In Your showing
Though the past is set in stone
And I cannot hope to change it
My way You were attending
Your promise You were keeping
Even though I was unseeing
I was not alone
You were always with me
In this joining
There's no hindering
Your redeeming
You have made my past Your own
Your peace the greater river
The flow revealing
You give meaning
The past measuring
Just how much I have grown.

Life in You is like a river
First the wading
Then the swimming
Then the full immersing
As you carry me along
I am surrounded by the water
Truest living
All consuming
Perfect cleaning
Of all I have done wrong
Your Spirit is the water
He's imbuing
And renewing
Then He's teaching
Words of a new song
In this river of Your life
Constant flowing
Forever growing
Eternal knowing
In You is where I belong.