Still I know
Your love never changes
Even when
Life rearranges
As death clutches,
Grief crushes
On wings and prayers,
Silence hushes.
Can absence be an invitation
For depth and expansion?
Remaking space
with a new rhythm
Abiding
Comforted
Kindly named, like rain
Awakened and shining.
This is my undoing
Lofty labels, dreams, and goals
All bequeathed to His keeping
To a timing yet to unfold
I can breathe another moment
I can exhale another lie
Cause all the flaws that filled my mind
Are criticisms he unwinds
Fresh wind
Hope lifts
Renewed mind
Interpreting my gaze; seeing my own reflection through his eyes instead
“You are very good”
“Fearfully and wonderfully made”
“Unique, perfection of beauty, a radiant one, a joyful emblem of my love”
As always,“Mine”
Prayer
for a steady mind
Not one flitting about unwilling to alight
Prayer
for a brave heart
To face the face of loneliness
(The cave I do not wish to enter)
And to know I do not need a shining prince to save me;
One rightful King has already named me and called me out.
Seen and known by him;
Every hair counted
Every tear traced
Every wind stilled
Under his wings of faith
In my hiding He is seeking
In my screaming He is soothing.
All these doubts assaulted my well of being
I want to escape the pain and the not knowing
Hollow and silent
A grip of panic seizes me
Reject it with a deep breath,
Willing me
To just be.
Just being with him
A Being, loved
Until I experience
Being The beloved.
Apple of my fathers eye
No goal but to become
In his presence
Who he says I already am
To rest in his naming
As the child that I am
To be still
And complete
Centered in his heart
Knowing intimately his gaze
Compassionate understanding, patient pursuing
This is my undoing.
Fearsome, fraught,
I gave in to the going tough
and got an even better five-letter answer sought
It's a wrestle, tussle,
play with a few until you get through
the bragging bustle
The exchanged name
couldn't be relayed
'twas quite a shame fear caught
And still this association
distraction into fixing something beyond tweaking
I think I need a healing if I am hearing correctly I'm seeking
But if I'm not, I need a revealing
a sealing of what He's wrought
an abiding reminding of Love's undoing; the quenching draught.
“Our prayers will be little more than worrying in God’s direction….”
Augustine goes onto say “…. It wouldn’t be strengthening. It won’t heal our hearts by reorienting our vision and help us put things in perspective and bringing us to rest in God as our true security.”
Quoted in Tim Keller’s “Prayer”
Through the Spirit,
prayer is faith
become audible.
-Jonathan Edwards
Quoted in Timothy Keller “Prayer.”