Tag: poetry

renewal

by hovering love

“Renewal”

Gretchen M. Meyer

 

I feel a strange renewal of the mind

Into which assurance softly sings

A subtle shifting of my point of view

Which changes thoughts of me to thoughts of you.

 

There is a slow enlargement of the heart

A warming of the icy plains inside

As glaciers melt and water growing gardens

In which there now bud blooms of love and life.

 

Then comes a sudden rebirth of the soul

Which burns all ancient bitterness away

Cleansing fires engulf my petty spite

As ashes wash away in waves of grace.

 

So as stagnant emotions slowly leave

It is amazing how much more there is of me.

 

branches

by hovering love

Tree tops

moving to and fro together,

like laughing friends at a party or a bar . . . .

movement produced by the passing winds.

 

Tree tops

a community of branches laughing in the breeze;

sometimes chuckling,

sometimes a huge guffaw . . . .

moving together in all forms in between.

 

“You are a branch and I am The Vine;

           come,

                      laugh,

                                  move and live with Me!

                                                                      All My branches . . . . Come!!”

 

Sometimes the wind is so strong that the branches break;

they laughingly move and sway no longer, now they hang . . . . limp.

We don’t know why the wind does that; we only know that it does.

But brokenness doesn’t always bring death;

new leaves form,

even on broken ends.

Life and laughter begins again.

 

I have felt so broken, in so very many ways.

Show me the new leaves You are forming within me.

Cause them to grow,

and to move,

and to laugh,

and to live . . . . with You.

psalm

by hovering love

God is my “safe place”. I am always tucked safely within God, whether I’m aware of it or not. God is my “safe place”.

So why do the simplest daily struggles send me reeling as if I were being tossed about by a hurricane? How is it that the least struggle or smallest surrender rocks my foundations like an earthquake?

When I catch myself freaking out over the big, as well as the small, of life on planet earth, I feel so silly. I have experienced God as my foundation and security when my life was shattered, broken and dangling by a thread.

When I remember all that God has done for me, I sense the soothing peace flowing through me that is the Holy Spirit and I am grateful. God dwells within me, and I dwell within God—if my life does shatter, I will not face it alone. I am encapsulated within his shield of protection. God’s devastating grace goes before me each step of the way.

Nonetheless, each day I am attacked through thoughtless words and deeds. Misunderstandings abound as a result of my impatience, as well as that of others. The intentional cruelties of mankind are not strangers to me. I am relentlessly caught off guard by the sins that seem to own me. Nor am I able to escape the humiliating consequences of my own stupidity. My own unkind memories mortify me.

But I am not a lost cause. God brings the truth to light, destroying my many falsehoods. God refreshes my frazzled soul, bringing hope to me when I have none. God quiets my spirit and causes me to grow. He convinces me that he alone is God, and his love for me is unstoppable.

My soul breathes deeply, and my harried thoughts are stilled. Trust in God has become my power, and my heart is flooded with peace.

God is my “safe place”. I am always tucked safely within God, whether I’m aware of it or not. God is my “safe place”.

Psalm 46–in my own words