A Year In Review [New Poem]
A year in review Peer at heart’s blood spilt Strokes and smudges prove Inky aches, grief, guilt Pen pressed to paper A soul’s life pressed bleeds Self-reliant nat're Dies, new life receives Deadly peril kills, Makes dead, despairing Of life’s turning thrills; No more even caring And thus delivered Up, deceased, seeking Hope and Source tendered, Rebuke to all fleeting Comforts div’rced from Him, Raiser of the dead Soul, review again, Surety, Christ who also bled
I started writing this poem after reading through my journal from 2021 at the close of the year. It was a difficult year in many ways! But as I reflected on the things I had written, I was reminded of the following passage from 2 Corinthians:
8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.
2 Corinthians 1:8-10
God is up to good even (and especially) in our moments of affliction, weakness, being burdened, and despairing. His eyes are resolutely set on our deliverance and demonstrating again and again to us that the only true hope is not in ourselves but in the resurrected and resurrecting One — Jesus Christ. Past deliverance fosters our hope in future deliverance — a purified hope seeking the Source Himself. Indeed, it is a pleasing pain when it leads to dependence on God instead of self-reliance. This is the place of joy, peace, and contentment (see Psalm 131).
Death may loom, but the light of new life breaks through in the exact moments and places of despair. He will deliver us again!
Moment-By-Moment 