Grief, a Thief (Poem)

See the Grieving and Mourning series here

To dear friends who are deeply into grief,

I pray their sojourn in it will be brief.

It’s not because, for them I lack sympathy.

It’s that, for them, I perceive …Christ’s empathy!

Because to loss, grieving is a natural response.

In significant loss, we may find grief has ensconced.

Once it has settled into a ‘cozy cove’,

Across other areas of life, it may rove.

Here’s something with which we can identify:

A comfy focus on ‘Me, Myself and I’. 

The spirit of grief knows about this human trait,

And makes sure that, of such, we will have a FULL plate!

Daily, hefty servings of ‘who or what I’ve lost’,

Will eventually, your Christian joy exhaust.

What might The Spirit of Joy in Christ think,

When by ensconced grief, His saints are hoodwinked??

Throughout The Bible, The Lord promises, then He demonstrates, 

That in ‘Goshen-effect, difference-making’ acts, He elates!

He couldn’t act when, from Goshen, Jewish slaves were absent. ¹

So for Christians, what is our ‘Goshen equivalent’?? 

I believe it’s faith-based JOY that’s inexpressible, ²

That never quits in circumstances, unbearable.

If in significant loss, in joy we can’t abide,

Might The Lord’s Goshen-effect acts for us …be denied?? ³

If by trials of our faith, patience is induced,

Please tell me, what do trials of our joy produce??

Since FULLNESS of joy is …in The Lord’s presence, ⁴

Where are we, when our joy …has lost its puissance??

While grief is an initial, natural response to loss,

The spirit of grief wants to hang around, dig in and boss! 

Let’s learn to beat this spirit of grief at its own game!

Staying in JoY, denies its roots any place to claim.

Ponder these ‘fertilizer-to-fruits’ questions:

--Could a sustained focus on what I have lost, how I am impacted, and what am I to do now, possibly be the fertilizer the spirit of grief uses to distract our focus away from our peace, joy and hope in Christ, toward the deceptive, selfish cares of this temporal world??

--Could deep, protracted grief and mourning, possibly be the fruits of shunning The Lord's advice, through Paul, in Philippians 4:8-9??

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¹ See: The Goshen Effect (Series).

² See: 1 Peter 1:8.

³ In the New Testament (NKJV), faith is closely allied with Joy 6 times -- spiritually, the number of incompletion or imperfection. To you, what does that signify?

⁴ See: Psalm 16:11 and Acts 2:28.

Missed Insights from Jeremiah 9 (Poem, Part 1)

See the Missed Insights series here

 

This is my absolute favorite Bible passage.

In beaded Morse Code, my bracelet ‘transmits’ the message.

As I began to write this rhyme, The Lord intervened,

To say, His command, everybody has contravened,

Both directly and indirectly, in life, routine.

Thus, I STOPPED to ponder and to hear …what did He mean??

Knowing we humans are a very proud species,

To His reference to ‘directly’, I agreed!

But how have we all indirectly contravened??

He turned my attention to His creation scene,

And to His iterative use of the word, Let. ¹

I quickly understood His ‘everybody’ point!!!

Ponder this:

When He said, Let, while He was creating,

To whom or to what was The Lord speaking??

In all His commands, the objects are clear. ²

To His voice, implied subjects tune their ‘ears’. 

All things, spiritual and physical,

Obey His voice to seek His approval.

That’s true, but with one exception – HUMANS!!!

Though at the apex of His creation,

In His personal image we’re designed,

With The Lord’s voice, we are all …NOT ALIGNED!!! 

Thus, we don’t see us in His ‘Let’ commands.

Keep reading so my point you’ll understand. 

You see, Friends, WE are the implied subjects,

In what verse 23 above directs.

The wise, mighty and rich are the objects.

Though us all, the spirit of pride infects,

Who among us are the most infected??

To them, The Lord’s deep angst is directed.

So why to us who are not wise, mighty or rich,

Is responsibility implicitly hitched??

What influence have we, individually,

Also possibly together, collectively,

To affect The Lord’s ‘Let not’ commands, over those,

Who, full of pride, will earn His harsh pride-judgment blows??

Our first, and most prominent influences,

Should be our ‘demonstration effects’ graces.

To all, our lifestyle examples speak volumes.

Forget such effects if, like theirs, our pride blooms,

Or if we embrace envy, the opposite.

In both of these sins, we’ll become …indurate. ³

Otherwise, how can we respond faithfully,

To The Lord’s commands given implicitly?

His saints should testify, prophetically:

--Of how we were delivered, powerfully, 

From The Lord’s promised judgments on sins of pride,

--And with repentance, His Grace won’t be denied. 

‘Yeah, right, J!’, rolling your eyes, as I envision.

I’m just the messenger, with the same reaction!

But I’m ‘judgment smart’ enough, this truth to have learned:

With His direct or implicit will/Word, He’ll return,

More Grace, and with no repentance, then His judgments.

Let’s aim for more of His Grace, through obedience. ⁴

~~~~~~~

Indeed, we have some influences on the wise, strong and rich.

If not, The Lord would not have made us His …indirect subjects.

Stay tuned for Part 2

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¹ See: Genesis 1:3-26.

² Quick review: The subject(s) of a sentence is/are whatever or whomever is taking the verb action(s) on the object(s). The object(s) of a sentence is/are whatever or whomever is receiving the verb action(s) by the subject(s). Thus, the objects of verse 23 are people who are wise, mighty and rich in life. Did you think these people were/are the subjects of The Lord’s ‘Let…’ commands?? I sure did, until…

The objects of verse 24 are anybody who is inclined to be selfishly prideful, rather than prideful about knowing The Lord, and His works in the Earth.

Throughout The Bible, He is typically very clear in identifying the objects of His discourses and commands, but from our perspective, He’s not always clear regarding the subjects. Clarity of His unstated subjects comes as we examine the immediate context of His statements, in light of the broader, spiritual context of The Bible.

³ Indurate – hardhearted, obdurate, stubborn, unfeeling. Since pride is all about what ‘I’ have or have achieved, and envy is all about what ‘another’ has or has achieved, classically, envy is the spiritual opposite of pride.

⁴ Whether we repent or not, The Lord’s response is always more Grace, that is until Grace’s cloaked expiration date for a person, family, company/corporation, society, nation, and __?__, has expired. That's 6 recipients of His Grace. Since 6 is spiritually the number of incompletion, and some may say the number of imperfect man(kind), can you guess what is/are the missing recipient(s) of The Lord’s Grace and Judgments, purposed to achieve Righteousness??