Sunday, August 16, 2015

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.

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

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.