Splinters

I have a love/hate relationship with splinters. I hate having them, but I love the way it feels when they finally come out.

It is late, and I should be asleep, but I have some -- possibly cheesy or cliché -- lessons my splinters are teaching me. 

1. Splinters can come in two ways; from healthy or unhealthy decisions. Sometimes the unhealthy decisions are due to someone else, someone not sanding woodwork well or leaving out sharp objects. Sometimes we get splinters because we are not where we should be, be it on the wrong path or in a place where splinters abound.

Sometimes splinters are the result of hard work. I worked in my yard yesterday for several hours and I have a lot of splinters to show for it. Each one almost feels like a badge of honor and the pain reminds me of what I accomplished. My yard is much better off after the work (and so am I, feeling peace as I look at my yard and the assurance that the exercise was a good decision).

2. I had one splinter deeply embedded that finally came out tonight. It was huge and I am so glad it is out! The end of pain brings great appreciation for the painless. The longer the pain or the larger the splinter, the greater the relief, too!

3. Sometimes rushing makes things worse. Our bodies do a masterful job of pushing out infections and inflictors like splinters. I was trying to get a splinter out and broke it in half. Now I have a tiny sliver, much harder to reach but just as painful, stuck in my hand.

4. Splinters are tiny, but their effect is large.

Life hurts sometimes, whether caused by our own poor choices or those of someone else. We end up with ridiculous "splinters" we don't think we should have to deal with. We try to protect ourselves (like wearing gloves while landscaping) and get even more frustrated that thorns work their way in. And they don't just poke us once. They pierce the skin and cozy up for and unwelcome stay.

And then we wait - for the slow release of the splinter. Or we grab the tweezers or needles for some do-it-yourself outpatient surgical splinter removal. Either way, it hurts and tests our patience.

When that splinter is gone, enjoy the painless times. Find joy in the tiny blessings that may only appear to be splinter-sized. Size doesn't matter as much as the effect.

And wear your scars  with a sense of accomplishment. Allow the splinters to grow you, improve you, get you somewhere. The splinters will come, but it matters much more what you do with them.

In a world where things happen as coincidence or by happenstance, "splinters" are just a pain.  But in the  world God has given us, each splinter is an opportunity to trust God more, find joy in the good, rely on God's timing, and put hope in our splinter-free eternity.

Unrated Truth

Prayers wracked

with longing for Your vision;

to see the world as You,

to discern and feel,

to grasp what You know

and I ache.

Be gone from here

to heal and love,

To depart from here in freedom from that which

tears at the flesh of our souls

and eats us

in from out.

And hatred rules

as self comes first

and others sulk in the stupidity of their own.

Surely none know better than You

but think we are You

and know better as self.

The me, the my

the I know most and mostly care what fills

the gaping abyss of the love gone, abandoned

for love of what ruins.

Twisting the soul of whom

in deception and cackles

to bring the the might, 

the maybe release of agony of soul

In disregard of truth of soul. 

Criminal desire destroying youth

and taking what is not his own

and body wracked with loss of child

and memory of holding her inside.

Foolish wealth of no meaning 

driving the mind and separating love.

Fear from what cannot be known

making known destruction.

Words of value little

belittle, wound, then scar

forever remaining to remind 

of worth that is lost.

And I hate the hatred, 

no rule of golden as we despise

And I hurt

I hurt

I hurt

LORD save!

I cannot be where You are not.

The incomplete of distance and lack

of You.

It's You who hopes and loves and saves

and save me from the sheol of what I cannot take.

And as I long to run

and feel no more

the ache of life

I long for life but not from him

or her or them

but You

and hope takes hold

when I see You not

but feel Your strength

buried beneath the layers of self 

and self and self 

as each seeks his own and 

places others beneath

beside

but never before.

But hope

I feel

I long

I need to know,

know You

fill from You.

Take loss and teach,

give reason for wrath

and I loosen the grip on

that which tears

and glimpse joy in the that might be

could be

that will be only from You.

Until I release

Until thoughts relent

Until I grasp You

and soul is devoured by

truth

love

truth

embrace of just compassion

and that which sees beneath the surface of humanity

Until that

and then

be now!

Only You to fill with the vision of hope

to be where You would have me

and fulfillment only in the ethic

of working for You

And work I must

pursuit

in pain

in loss for right,

shirking the gray to exist in its own disdain

for what that matters

not desire alone.

In truth I long.

In hope I live.

In You is all and all is good

and naught for life without

So cling in all

relent in none

for life complete in greatness

of the world's regard of nothing

but Your reality of full and ever strong

and right.