Guest Blogger: A Poem from Jenny

JD asked me to write a guest entry for his blog, so I am putting up the poem I wrote last night. I was inspired by Phillip Yancey's book, Prayer: Does it Make Any Difference?. in which Yancey states that prayer could be defined best as helplessness before God. Only in our helplessness, he believes, can God replace our worldview with his own and become a true source of power in our lives. As I was in prayer last night, the idea for the poem came into my head and I wrote it down right away. I include it in the hope that the ideas will bless someone as they blessed me!


Helpless

If prayer is a state of helplessness
Let me constantly be praying.
Then
I will recede to make way for Your
Torrent-rush
Of Light, Love
Healing, Hope,
Abundance,
Peace.

I will shrink
So You can grow, flourish, occupy
The space inside my heart –
Pushing, Stretching, Reaching,
Till my heart,
Like Yours,
Has room to hold
the weakest,
Poorest, most un-loved . . .
Hold them tight until
That torrent-rush
Surrounds them, heals them,
Makes them Whole.

I will die
So, like a seed dropped in the ground,
My faith will burst, break, branch on branch,
Leaf on leaf,
A fully-riped, lovely tree
From whose topmost branches
I can glimpse where we are going:

A land of impossibles
That are real;
Of ugliest
Who are beautiful;
Of unloved
Who are precious, dear,
The apple of Your eye;
Of sickest, most in pain
Running, dancing, and in health -

A place we only find
When we are helpless.

-- Jenny