Sunday 24 July 2011

Grief

...There are some griefs so loud
They could bring down the sky,
And there are griefs so still
None knows how deep they lie,
Endured, never expended.
There are old griefs so proud
They never speak a word;
They never can be mended. --May Sarton, “Of Grief,” Selected Poems of May Sarton (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1978), p. 77.

Monday 2 May 2011

Just Wait


Wait and You Will See Him
Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried:
Quietly, patiently, lovingly God replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate,
And the Master so gently said, "Child, you must wait."
"WAIT? You say 'wait'," my indignant reply.
"Lord, I need answers. I need to know why!
Is Your hand shortened? Or have You not heard?
By faith I have asked and am claiming Your Word.
My future and all to which I can relate
Hangs in the balance, and YOU tell me 'Wait'?
B I'm needing a 'yes', a go-ahead sign,
Or even a 'no' to which I can resign.
And, Lord, You promised that if we believe
We need but to ask, and we shall receive.
And, Lord, I've been asking! I need a reply!"
"Lord, I need answers. I need to know why!
Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate
As my Master replied once again, "You must wait".
So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut,
And grumbled to God, "So I'm waiting....for what?"

He seemed, then, to kneel, and His eyes wept with mine,
And He tenderly said, "I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead, cause the mountains to run.
All you seek, I could give, and pleased you would be.
You would have what you want...but you wouldn't know Me.
You'd not know the depth of my love for each saint;
You'd not know the power that I give to the faint;
You'd not learn to see through clouds of despair;
You'd not learn to trust just by knowing I'm there;
You'd not know the joy of resting in Me
When darkness and silence were all you could see.
You'd never experience the fullness of love
As the peace of My Spirit descends like a dove;
You'd know that I give and I save (for a start),
But you'd not know the depth of the beat of My heart,
The glow of My comfort late in the night,
The faith that I give when you walk without sight,
The depth that's beyond getting just what you asked
Of an infinite God, who makes what you have last.
You'd never know, should your pain quickly flee,
What it means that "My grace is sufficient for thee".
Yes, your dreams for that loved one overnight would come true,
But, Oh, the loss! if I lost what I am doing in you!
So be silent, My child, and in time you will see
That the greatest of gifts is to get to know Me.
And though oft may My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still, "WAIT".

This poem written was by a missionary after a 2-month illness.
The author wishes to remain anonymous in order that God get all the glory, as he says it was God who gave it to him.