friday poetry

He said, "I will forget the dying faces;

The empty places,

They shall be filled again.

O voices moaning deep within me, cease."

But vain the word; vain, vain:

Not in forgetting lieth peace.

He said, "I will crowd action upon action

The strife of faction

Shall stir me and sustain;

O tears that drown the fire of Manhood cease.

"But vain the word; vain, vain:

Not in endeavor lieth peace.

He said, "I will withdraw me and be quiet,

Why meddle in life's riot?

Shut be my door to pain.

Desire, thou dost befool me, thou shalt cease.

"But vain the word; vain, vain:

Not in aloofness lieth peace.

He said, "I will submit;I am defeated.

God hath depleted

My life of its rich gain.

O futile murmuring, why will ye not cease?

"But vain the word; vain, vain:

Not in submission lieth peace.

He said, "I will accept the breaking sorrow

Which God to-morrow

Will to His son explain.

"Then did the turmoil deep within him cease.

Not vain the word, not vain.

For in Acceptance lieth peace."

antipara

an excerpt from Chapter 8 of "Let me be a woman"

by Elisabeth Elliot

Perspective makes all the difference in the world.

If you catch even a glimpse of the divine design (and who can see more than a glimpse of any part of it?), you will be humbled and awed at least. I believe a true understanding of it will make you grateful. But there are those to whom being a woman is nothing more than an inconvenience, to be suffered because it is unavoidable and to be ignored if at all possible. Their lives are spent pining to be something else. Every creature of God is given something that could be called an inconvenience, I suppose, depending on one's perspective. The elephant and the mouse might each complain about his size, the turtle about his shell, the bird about his wings. But elephants are not called upon to run behind wainscots, mice will not be found "pacing along as though they have an appointment at the end of the world," turtles have no need to fly nor birds to creep. The special gift and ability of each creature defines its special limitations. And as the bird easily comes to terms with the necessity of bearing wings when it finds that it is, in fact, the wings that bear the bird-- up, away from the world, into the sky, into freedom--so the woman who accepts the limitations of womanhood finds in those very limitations her gifts, her special calling-- wings, in fact, which bear her up into perfect freedom, into the will of God.

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That principle can be applied to the unparalleled season of singleness.

If one sees it as "God keeping something that is good (e.g. marriage)"

then the season would be a curse.

Yet if one saw it as it is, a gift from God, then singleness will be

a blessing.

Also, it all boils down to your view of who God is and the truth about God.

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Psalm 34:8-10 (New International Version)

⁸ Taste and see that the LORD is good;
blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

⁹ Fear the LORD, you his saints,
for those who fear him lack nothing.

¹⁰ The lions may grow weak and hungry,
but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

Romans 8:32 (New International Version)

³²He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

emotional purity versus emotional striptease

Got introduced to you by a friend

You were cute and all that, baby you set the trend

Yes you did oh

The next thing I know we're down at the cinema

We're sitting there, you said you loved me

What's that about

You're moving too fast, I don't understand you

I'm not ready yet, baby I can't pretend

No I can't

The best I can do is tell you to talk to me

It's possible, eventual

Love will find a way

Love will find a way...

Don't say you love me

You don't even know me

If you really want me

Then give me some time

Don't go there baby

Not before I'm ready

Don't say your heart's in a hurry

It's not like we're gonna get married

Give me, give me some time

Here's how I play, here's where you stand

Here's what to prove to get any further than where it's been

I'll make it clear, not gonna tell you twice

Take it slow, you keep pushing me

You're pushing me away

Pushing me away...

Don't say you love me

You don't even know me

If you really want me

Then give me some time

Don't go there baby

Not before I'm ready

Don't say your heart's in a hurry

It's not like we're gonna get married

Give me, give me some time

oooo, na, na, na, na, na, na, na

na, na, na, na, na, na

oooo, na, na, na, na, na, na, na

na, na, na, na, na, na, na

Don't say you love me

You don't even know me baby...

Baby don't say love me, baby

Give me some time...

Don't say you love me

You don't even know me

If you really want me

Then give me some time

Don't go there baby

Not before I'm ready

Don't say your heart's in a hurry

It's not like we're gonna get married

Give me, give me some time

(repeat until fade out)

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My father taught my four brothers never to say

"I love you" to any girl unless they are to follow it with an immediate

"Will you marry me?"

-Elisabeth Elliot

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GUIDELINE #1:

Would I treat him/her this way if he was a married man/woman?

-Heather Arnel Paulsen

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Proverbs 4:23 (New International Version)

²³ Above all else, guard your heart,
for it is the wellspring of life.

Jeremiah 17:9 (New International Version)

⁹ The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?