Author’s note: I don’t recall ever feeling quite so reluctant to share one of my poems before. I know this is quality stuff. I read it at church last week and a former English teacher practically gushed about it. Still, for some reason…I dunno. I’m mainly doing it because I feel I ought to, and I sincerely hope that it helps someone. Please read S.L.O.W.L.Y.—as in one or two lines at a time so you can take it in properly. Then sit quietly at the end. You might even be able to hear Holy Spirit speaking to you when you are through…
We all run around like crazy…
Our moral compass kicks in,
So we try desperately to do and say all the right things,
And avoid saying and doing the wrong things.
We think if we DO,
We’ll feel better about ourselves…
Feel closer to God,
Feel more like what we assume we should feel like
(Whatever that may be)—
More pious, more humble, less prideful,
More happy, more peaceful, less anxious.
Then we worry about the relationship maze:
Making the right impressions,
Ignoring or paying attention to people around us
In an effort to balance our private lives,
Our family lives, and our social lives—
Including all those random encounters.
Do they love me, like me, or hate me?
Do I care what they think?
Is all this relationship stuff really necessary???
Those things, of course, are beyond the basics,
Our need to survive—
To eat, to drink, to sleep—
And our need to have some sense of aesthetics
Just for the sake of mental health—
The beauty we see and the order we need.
It’s all ridiculously jumbled together into
Jam-packed 24-hour time slots,
Where the clock keeps beating us over the head with,
There’s not enough time!
There’s not enough time!
There’s just not enough time!
Tick…Tick…Tick…Tick…Tick…
Then one day, time stops for us.
We die.
This could be literal,
Or it could be one of those rare moments
When just for an instant our brains and hearts
Find some kind of suspended equilibrium.
There’s suddenly mental space in our heads
Where just for a moment we realize,
We just ARE…
Until the chaos in our lives takes over again—
Mainly because we LET it!!!
Just. Stop.
Breathe.
Unfocus from the insanity.
Embrace grace…
God’s compassionate grace.
Trust the Holy Spirit to let you know
When to be concerned with
Our thoughts, our actions, our motives,
And how to interact with others,
But above all,
Trust God to help you know
When to DO,
And when to BE
…And when to be still and know
He. Is. God.