Thursday, April 7, 2016

For You

So excited to be doing the A to Z Challenge for the second year in a row! I will be posting each day (besides Sunday) this month. I'll be posting things I've learned throughout high school.


Today I discovered a poem I wrote March of my junior year (about a year ago). It really touched me because it captures an awakening that was going on within my soul...

That January, I had realized that I wanted to be so in love with Jesus that nothing else mattered. I also realized that I wanted to do everything I possibly could to attain this relationship. That was when my faith really became active. My knees hit the ground. 

I made a commitment to pray every day...again. I'd made that commitment so many times. This time, however, it was coupled with a burning desire. I had seen what my life was like without God. I was feeling pretty alone in life and as I was growing closer to God, I was noticing that I was drifting a part from a lot of my friends. Not that any of them are bad people at all...I really believe that God just wanted to purify me and have some "just Annie time". 

Anyway. A lot of people (myself included at times) get really angry at God for allowing them to go through certain things. Personally, I know I questioned Him a lot about why He had allowed me to grow so distant from Him sophomore year. I have come to actually be grateful for that time. I hate that I sinned...but it really gave me a huge heart for sinners. Who is a sinner? All of us!

I have learned that God lets us go through everything for a reason, even sin. I genuinely believe this. 

Let me again share Sirach 39:21:

"No cause then to say, 'what is the purpose of this?' For everything is chosen to satisfy a need."

Because I know what it's like to run from God, I want to spend my life leading people back to Him. Because I know what it's like to hate one's self, I want to spend my life sharing how each person is individually created, called, and crowned. Because I know what it's like to feel rejection, I want to spend my life showing Christ's love and acceptance. Because I know what it is like to use, I want to spend my life teaching the dignity of each life. 

I don't find my value in bringing people to Christ, however awesome and humbling that might be. I don't feel like I have to "make it up to Jesus" by "saving people"-- Jesus already did the saving and any Truth that I might share is His.

But I have seen brokenness. I have seen it in myself. I have seen it in the eyes of a girl who had been so used that, by the age of fifteen, she thought that she was completely worthless and unlovable. I have seen it in a boy who had been so rejected and abandoned that he cut himself to numb the pain. I have seen it in the lifestyle of a girl who didn't know how to come to God with her pain and so numbed it with drugs and alcohol. 

If high school has taught me anything...it has taught me that everyone is broken and everyone has a story. It has taught me that my heart longs for Jesus, that He alone can satisfy me. And it has taught me that I long to share with others the infinite, healing love of Christ.

So! This poem. I wrote it at a time when I was finally really understanding how very much we all need Jesus. Also, I was so devastated by the lies that the people around me were buying into...it's so interesting how much people change in just a couple of years. I was seeing the choices that people I love were making and how they were leading them away from Jesus...and this poem came to be.


For You

All around me
I hear cries of "where is love"
screams of desperation
alone
cold
drowning

We've all broken our hearts
placing them in paper shredders
and playing with knives
and yet we wonder
why we're always bleeding

I look around me
seeing weary eyes
tear-stained cheeks
sliced arms
Does anyone see 
what we've done
to each other

In our search for "love"
we've rejected Love Himself

And we want someone
to hold our hands
But He's holding us

We want someone to sit beside us
But He's running with us

We want someone who will stay forever
But He'll lead us there

God I'm so broken
so tired of forgiving 
of trying to love
and failing

But you knew my words
before I thought them
You hold my heart
Heal my soul

I sit here and wish for love
But I already have Him
He's got me

Love that came
was torn
beaten
wounded
for you

Who died
for you
Who came back
for you

Who 
will
never
leave

6 comments:

  1. brb holding back the tears. (really!) This was poignant yet beautiful. I loved every word of it! -Gail

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  2. So poignant, so raw and yet, so complete and comforting.
    I read your beautiful words out loud , letting them fill the empty space around me with a gentle fullness.

    I have a poem from my youth, I pull it out now and then, reading it aloud and hearing the voice of the young woman that was once me. This reminds me of the girl I was so long ago.

    Save and cherish your written thoughts, they will always serve as a reminder of where we stood at a moment in time.

    Sent with love and hugs, Jenny

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    Replies
    1. Wow, Jenny, thank you so much! What a well put, beautiful reason for holding onto writing. xxx

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