Poems, Personal Stories, and Observations

Archive for the ‘Christian’ Category

Help Me Love You

Jesus, help me love You,
Help me live for You each day,
Put my life into Your hands,
With faith keep fear away.

Help me see the beauty
You made for me each day.
Recognize Your glory
In things that come my way.

See You in each moment,
In the clouds and sun.
See You in disguises
That all around me come.

See Your plan so awesome,
In joy and sadness praise.
See you both in drudg’ry
And pleasant things each day.

Put my trust completely
In Your plan so great.
Let me tell Your story
So all can contemplate.

Someday

Someday I’ll walk in heav’nly lands,
By crashing waves and sunlit sands,
Shall walk beneath an azure sky,
On grassy hills and meadows lie.

No more will furrows cross my brow,
No more my worries back to bow,
No more to let my peace be stirred,
By frowning face or angry word.

Then will I let God’s love enfold,
Will tell His story bright and bold,
Will shine forth with His glorious light,
My weakness showing forth His might.

Embrace

How to hug the world’s pain?
A hug could seem so trite.

To let hope enter in again,
Make heavy burden light?

How to ease the suffering
Of untold millions’ blight?

How to bring a healing balm,
A quiet calm, a lasting peace,
A heart at ease, a healing light?

Oh heavy burden, how to bear?
The Savior’s groan does pierce the air.

Sing Like the Lark

Look to Him, look to Him,
Though you wander in the dark.
Fly high, take wing,
Sing like the lark.

He will triumph,
He will win,
He will overcome your sin –
Let Him in.

Stay strong, keep on,
Like the eagle you will be
Flying on to destiny.

Fly high, do not fear,
Your Lord and Master,
He draws near.

Great and Awesome

Great and awesome, mighty God,
You who made the heavens and earth,
And every soul that comes to birth.

We do not understand Your ways,
Oblique to every mind are they.
How often we misspend our days.

We struggle, strive, to keep alive.
We fight, we hate, offense do take,
‘Til understanding comes – too late?

Your mercy, grace, so fathomless;
Your justice, anger, so restrained,
Until the time You have ordained.

Your patience for us wayward souls,
Your love expressed a thousand-fold —
Infinity we now behold.

How do we You now comprehend?
How, small soul, your ways to mend?
His mercy triumphs in the end.

The Traveler

I must go on,
For the road is long.
No matter how I think or feel,
I must go on.

I must be strong —
Still the river flows.
Where it leads; I do not know.
I must be strong.

I must keep on,
Though all seems dark.
No matter what some say or do,
I must keep on.

Though throat be parched,
Though eyes do sting,
Confusion reign or angels sing —
Remember Jesus’ suffering.

Keep on the road,
And do not fail,
Though drink be bitter, bread be stale.
To heaven’s gate I must prevail.

Christ is My Hope

I love cemeteries. They are quiet and peaceful. I think of the people resting there and hopefully they are completely at peace.

So Christmas day, my kids and I took a walk to Maple Leaf Cemetery in Oak Harbor, Washington. The walk itself was brisk, both in speed and in the weather. After a few meanderings we found the cemetery. One grave I saw was of a three-and-a-half month old child, which brought me to tears. Then, a young man of 28, obviously well loved. More tears. As I walked, a group of people across the cemetery seemed to be having a party. They had their car door open, and Christmas music came from its radio. Perhaps celebrating Christmas as they remembered a life well lived.

The final grave I looked at is pictured here. “Christ is My Hope” was the epitaph. I can honestly say that is true for me.

I just now noticed that there is no date of death, and that the birth date was in 1915, which means the person is now 98 years of age. I am glad the person has faced the reality of death and has the hope of resurrection.

Just a few days later, we visited my uncle by marriage, who is now 100 years old. He still walks an hour a day using his walker. His mind is still pretty sharp. What an amazing man.

Still, we never know when we might go.

131225 Maple Leaf Cemetery 002x

To Touch One Heart

To touch one heart with song,
To mend one soul I long,
To water the dry earth,
And bring to souls new birth.

To bring God’s light I must,
To blow the stars like dust,
To transform tears to mirth —
Then will my life have worth.

In Wretched Stable

Light in the darkness,
Peace in the storm;
In wretched stable
Our Savior was born.

Forgiveness for sinners,
Hope for the lost;
Hatred now broken —
At unmeasured cost.

Love brought to sinners,
The ugly made whole;
To broken and battered
He shows heaven’s door.

Friend to the unlovely,
The lost and forlorn —
Caught now in sin’s prison,
The fetters are torn.

Come, all you people;
Sing now His praise.
The One who will save us
Is Jesus by name.

Agony

Agony is all I feel
Until I get to You and see,
Until I let You get to me
And set me free.

Struggling, striving,
Ever hiding,
Not abiding,
Until surrender.

When I let myself let go,
When you live in me and grow,
When I let You set me free,
Is when I see.

I catch the glimpses from above,
I’m sometimes drowned within Your love,
But other times I lose the vision,
Have no focus; feel division.

I thank You for the battle won,
I thank You for Your Holy Son,
For Him who died upon a tree
And will complete good work in me.