My Frame

 This bit of rambling poetry (if that is what it may be called) was prompted after peering closely at the heart of a beloved sister in Christ and seeing the struggle that lay beneath the surface. Like the rest of us, she was battling for her identity in a world that refuses to give a satisfying answer. Her war is our war - a war from the beginning of time that we wage against "evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12). We must remember in the midst of it all that our "real [lives are] hidden with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3) and that in Him is life, and life abundant (John 10:10). Isn't that the heartbeat of grace?

My Frame

With one eye I seek Your glory;
The other craves the glitter
Of a world that is fading.
One foot
Firmly planted in the Kingdom,
The other
Scuffing about for a softer ground.
But I'm not a demon,
Masking the truth with lies and telling myself
With one breath
That I'm "all in,"
Then mumbling a straddler's half-hearted prayer.
God, You know me.
You know this fragile frame,
Dust to be caught on the softest wind,
In a moment blown away.
Help me to know myself,
To look past the veneer of stereo-typed humanity
And see the war that rages in my very soul.
Teach me the meaning of words that only my ear seems to know,
Words like "grace"
And "freedom"
And "forgiveness"
And "redemption";
And oh, teach me how to understand Calvary!
Show me that grace is my gift and my responsibility,
That I should not "use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh"
But "do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly" before You.
For when my days are done
And my number of breaths spent
Then before whom else will I stand,
To whom else will I be called to give account,
But my Savior
And my God?