W         A         I         T         I       N         G
 

W a i t i n g The space between the letters reveals how difficult our souls find being called to be and not to do   W a i t i n g – ceasing from activity’s constant hum, Seeking God as well as the moment of release   W a i t i n g – rapt attention and deep entwinement, earnestly pursuing the Lover of our souls   W a i t i n g – freedom from fretting in the long delays that punctuate our paths   W a i t i n g – seeking and embracing, the Father’s love and the Spirit’s wisdom   W a i t i n g because Heaven’s door      is open wide and I by grace        am allowed                          inside.

 

 

 

Step outside the Boat

‘Without courage, nothing great is ever accomplished for the Kingdom.’

Lord, I know most days that I have only
to play my part and do my chores.
and I will seek and find Your leading
on the well-worn path
of duty’s regular route.

But when more distant shores begin to call,
where duty’s path would never think to go,
Your vision beckons and my spirit stirs,
and I must set my face like flint
If I am ever to step outside the boat.

Though the prospect looms and daunts,
You must have gone ahead
– and if I should fail to step out,
I know this vision will fade and pass away
like the waves beneath my boat.

So from deep within I cry for grace
to make this change of course,
for You alone can stay the waves
and send the favourable wind
that steers me safe to callings new.

I summon up my courage,
embrace the risks entailed
and step outside the boat –
and we, with heaven, will rejoice that I did not stop short by staying home on safety’s shore.

 

 

Be still

Be still                                  
     and know                      
           that I am God.

I am as tired as the Lord must be

of the ceaseless chatter that clutters my mind

and the phobic sound of background noise.

 

  Be still weary soul,

       Be still burdened heart,

              Be still from the television’s scream.

 

                                   Be still, troubled soul,

                                   as now for a while

                                   you turn in search of eternal fare.

 

Be still diary bearer

       Be still time clock-watcher,

            Be still.

                                    
Give me first Your emptiness –

   Your hidden guilts and fears

       that rise to mar this precious time. 

 

Then let me lift this pall of trepidation
that makes you think

I would not want to meet with you.

 

           Be still inner soul,

              Be still wayward fears;                                                       Receive the Father’s love.    

       
In stillness be renewed in trust

in this warm embrace of My outstretched arms,

that stills and steadies your storm-tossed soul.

 

                  Be still, for holiness adorns My court,

                       Be still, for joy awaits your soul.

                         

No longer a chore but a sweet command,

   I accept this invitation to the place

       where Your Spirit presides and infuses –

                                      this inner stillness of the soul.

 

 

Lord of our days

"All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!"
Psalm 139:16-17

Lord, You said it would take time
for hurts to fade
and the new to emerge. 

Cherished photos slide
from frame to frame:
real life also evolves, if not so fast. 

Therefore I bow the knee and wait
for Your purposes to reshape
and Your promises to find their fullest mark.
 

 

A Soul in Decline (Prayer for a Prodigal)

I spent time today with one
who used to walk with You
whose love once spurred her on
towards some higher goal.

But now that faith has dimmed to ashes
I see new passions glowing in the embers,
waiting only for the kindling
of some other master’s hand.

Lord, I pray for you to save this soul
from devoting herself to third-rate roles.
Rekindle her first love and
pave the way for her soul’s reunion.

 

Yet again the Telephone rings

Lord, my day was already stretched –
this smacks of the Distracter-Interrupter,
the blood-sucking reducer our time.

But . . . hold on a minute . . . before I rush
to cast the blame on his unloveliness below,
did I not commit this day to You,
my thoughts and my strength, my time and its table?

So could it just be that You are gracing my table
with richer fare than I had thought to invoke?
In talking with ‘x’ and and in meeting with ‘y’
(who never quite featured on my day to day schedule)

Your hand, O Lord, is pointing me
to vistas, needs and people
that will inform and enrich the work I must do. 

Through this ceaseless stream of interruptions,
and the time I invest in these callers,
unlooked for plans emerge and new grace flows.

 

The Programme De-Prioritizer

You’ve given me my marching orders, Lord,
In those twilight moments between sleep and waking
You whispered the things I need to give my attention to.
I’ve stored them safe away
and fully intend to implement them right away.

But now the electric’s on the blink,
the children’s shoes are who knows where,
and the washing machine has spun its last. 
So much fuss and wearisome expense –
my morale’s too low to attempt that precious load!

So as I sit and stare at the mountain of tasks,
I can only hope that tomorrow will do to begin the climb –
after all, You know me well enough to start in plenty of time.
Your Word reaches down from heaven’s heights,
where distractions like these could never snare my feet.

Or have I got that wrong?

What’s this I read? An accuser who barges in
to bluster before Your throne?
What’s he doing there?*
Upsetting heaven’s rhythm by darkening dispositions –declaiming faults with poison-tipped barbs.

Our hearts on Earth are bruised
by the distant rumble of his menacing threats.
But then a gentle whisper reaches out to reassure my heart:
“My child, I will help you”.
No need for more; that is all I need.

You are with me, and will never permit these latest shocks
to tumble me over my endurance limit.
You will find new ways to make good
the delays that have sorrowed my way
and to complete the projects You have placed on my heart.

* Zechariah 3:1-4f cf Job 1:6, Revelation 12:10

 

 

I cannot reach this person, Lord

I cannot reach this person, Lord;
their motives, dreams and ambitions
lie so far beyond my ken.
I hurt because I cannot read their soul
or sense what You would have me do.

Where two worlds meet
with no shared history to bridge the gap,
strangers we are, and strangers we will remain,
as each retreats behind their own drawbridge.
Lord, what would You have me do to span the gap?

Grant me courage to follow on down Kindness Road.
Let chesah – kindness – align my heart and direct my actions,
for just as soft words turn wrath aside,
so the gift of well-applied love can strike the chord
that brings release to bruised and blinkered hearts.

 

 

Receive from My Hand (John 3:27)

My Lord, a man can receive
only what is given from on high.
The range, the sphere, the influence
are granted by Your outstretched hand.

When burdens come we must ply our hearts
to craft the vision to its intended goal.
You invite us to aspire for higher things –
But where does knocking end and striving start?

If the final outcome is Yours
then Yours too must be the journey.
So I will cease from all striving and seek to enjoy
the simple blessings that You send each day.
 

 

If Only

 

 "This is My Beloved Son. Listen to Him." Mark 9:7

 

'Why would I have urged My people

to listen to My voice

unless it also brought us both the deepest joy:

for Me to speak to My beloved friends,

and for You to receive light into your darkness?'

 

‘I’m not much good at listening, Lord;

My radio dials are all but bust,

my satellite dish all skewed from its tracking,

and my mind so wrapped in self’s sterile stuff –

why should You deign to speak with me?’

 

‘I am much better at speaking than You at listening,

My word comes faster than You can keep it out.

My welcoming presence, My reassuring word,

a steering touch here, a reprimand there –

and long-lost hope springs us to defy the blocks ahead’.

 

‘Apply faith’s focus and pursue the path ahead;

nothing less than fortitude will enable you

to fulfil this course that I am showing you.

My angels will not fail to guard you on your path

and fire your heart to accomplish this task’.

 

Lord, it’s all too marvellous to comprehend,

that You would do all this for me

I can only set my will to listen and obey,

for anything less is but to embark upon

the path that leads to vain regrets.

 

“If only!” then is the anguished cry I hear,

wrung from a thousand tortured souls:

‘If only I had not done that, or had tried some other way

so much would not have gone awry

and my heart would not have railed’

 

"If My people would but listen to Me . . ."  Ps. 81:13        

 

And now a master hand deposits

his deadening load of condemnation

(mixed with sharp rejection shafts)

until dejection assumes a dull and daily hue

that shutters out the purer light of praise.

 

The bitter barbs of self-pity’s twisted knife

flit and flirt in the random places of our mind

gouge the heart and steal our peace,

until their bile beguiles our souls

and all but stifle the flow of the still small voice.

Now, Lord, I rally my response

and sound a resounding charge against these vain regrets.

Nothing’s over till it’s over; You still have much to say and do.

and so with fixed resolve I will do what You have shown me,

and not cease to listen and obey.

 

‘The night is not so far advanced

 that you have missed the mark;

I will play a skilful catch-up game

with those who join the vineyard late.

The self-absorbed will perish in their self-absorption

while the truly grateful reign in everlasting light.

 

‘If you will open wide your heart, my child,

and use both this and every present moment,

much greater then shall be your end reward

than ever you thought or deserved.’

I wrote this poem late one snowed-in Christmas evening in Kincardineshire. I was inspired by two themes. On the one hand: a great desire to encourage all who love the Lord to make listening for His voice an integral part of their walk with Him. On the other, I was recalling Martin Lloyd Jones’s excellent writing on the subject of ‘Vain Regrets’. ‘If Only’ hints at failures past and recriminations present but it does not leave us trapped in them. The poem encourages us to overcome the clouds that clutter our minds and to develop the discipline of seeking the Lord with all our hearts. Somewhere in the back of my mind I could hear the words of the hymn, ‘Trust and Obey, there’s no other way’.
 

 

Weigh it up and weigh on in 

The idea came in a surge of vision,
a rush of exciting dreams

So good just to let the mind explore
the perimeters of this bright idea

But then one day, 
when the tide was on the turn,
the vision seemed to stall

       So necessary then to let wisdom have its say
       and adjust the outlines of that bright idea!

In the day-by-day grind
of sheer hard trudge
the outworking continues to work itself out

So wise then to remember the stages
that mark the Creator’s many phases:

The starting vision and the bright idea –
 The dreamy days that spiral our thoughts to soaring heights –    the melting pots that refine reduce and reshape –
              the tailored threads that tie the whole together.                                                     
 

Restored to Refresh

"But as for me, my feet were nearly slipping" Psalm 73:2

You came within an inch of an ounce of a mile
of losing the gift I had put within your grasp;
but within a millisecond of My perfect timing
I swept to your aid and cushioned your fall.

Reproved, restored, refreshed, revived,
with an edge of wisdom that was not yours before,
and a softened dash of pride-withstanding humility
that you will exude to a thousand searching souls.

To those who are roaming and roving from safety moorings 
whose longings have led to the lip of the bottomless drop
to these you will be and bring His grace:
fence-mender, boundary placer, hope restorer.
 

 

In Eternity if not before

“Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.” Ecclesiastes 7:9

You killed the relationship stone dead
with those steaming storming stomping words;
so cold so cruel so cutting,
so thumping rubbing dumping.

Why ever did you open your mouth
and let resentment out?
Surely wisdom could have found
a higher nobler way?

Your ill-considered words
snuffed out the slender flame
of friendship with such utter wantonness
no human hand can ever trim this wick again.

Which leaves both you and I to await the time
when Jesus slides the slight behind His back
and finds a way to restore the broken thread –
In eternity if not before. 

What is begun in anger often ends in shame. Rash words shoot so readily from our mouths, often entailing harmful and long-term consequences. They say that those who lose their temper lose everything. When we do, we should mourn the fact that our heart has strayed so far from the source of all true love and wisdom.

By God’s grace most outbursts, like most relationship breakdowns, can be put right through patience and repentance – so long as we are willing to humble ourselves and ‘not to insist on insisting.’ Sometimes this process may take years. Occasionally the severed links may never be fully restored, in which case we must yield profound regrets to the Lord, who has all eternity in which to put things right. In the meantime we must actively seek Him to restrand the broken threads in our lives. Depending on circumstances, the ‘you’ in this poem stands either for our own regrettable lapses, or for the people who have turned the heat of their anger in our direction.

 

 

The Upside Down Bible

Here’s a topsy-turvy way to grasp important truths:
‘The ‘Upside Down Bible Version’
presents a dismal reversal of God’s grace
that will make you appreciate familiar truths
when you find them safe and sound the right way up.

‘Now may the god of despair
drain you of joy and peace
as the power outage around you
causes your trust in Him to wilt.’

Recognise the passage in question?
Let’s try some more!

How good it is when brothers dwell together in unity –
How ghastly and how soulless when they stand aloof.
Whence comes this power to sear and to divide?
From envy, malice and mistrust –
hallmarks of our father below.

How sweet to dwell on a future with God  –
how absurd to consider the reverse.

Thus says the Lord, ‘No way José: I have no plans for you:
the heights and depths you face are sure to keep you
from the love of God that is so far from you!’

So we must learn to dwell with seeming reversals
where God would meet with us through paradox.
The meek and poor will still inherit
what the rich and mighty cannot keep;
It is better to lose with grace than to insist on insisting,
for the first shall be last and the least come in first.

How good to know that He is always the same.
How terrible would be the reverse,
for then we would be left to presume the worst
when godly desires appear forever stalled.

This upside down Bible makes us ponder and assess:

Love is patient and kind, does not boast
and is not self-obsessed. Am I?

Love always protects, always hopes, always trusts. Do I?
 

 

The Morning Hour

"In the morning, O Lord, You hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before You and wait in expectation." Ps. 5:3

In the cool of the morning,
unfazed by the demands that lie ahead
here in the quiet of these pre-dawn hours
by the radiant warmth of the shimmering fire
my souls explores the love
that called me first to Your service.

So precious the insights,
so wise the counsel that alerts and averts,
As You draw me away from pressing needs
to refocus and receive Your love,
and then move out to join with saints of every persuasion
to travel the world in the power of prayer.

This is where You grant my spirit space
before resuming the climb ahead,
where Your Word speaks softly to my heart.
 

 

All to You, Lord Jesus

From You
       for You
              with You

I owe it all to You.

Opportunities taken or squandered,
       friendships made or broken,          
              privileges flowing or withheld
I give them all to You.

Heart pining, soul-longing,
high praising, I give my all to You.

 

 

Deep in His Presence

Renew the springs that source my passion, Lord;
uncramp my pinched and fettered spirit
to embrace the depths of Your welcoming presence
where Your Spirit stirs our souls
to pursue this path of prayer
that opens up Your heart to ours
and releases the power of love.
 

 

You keep the best till last

Hidden behind the apparently ordinary
the truly extraordinary emerges,
though fear and prejudice have made me
slow of sight and hard of heart.

Now as the sheer extent
of Your goodness unfolds
I am humbled by Your mercy
and overwhelmed by grace.

Why ever did I doubt the intricate detail of plans
which love proposed and faith ordained?
You have done just what You said
and kept the very best to last.

 

 

Ah hae kent sae muckle love fae dee,
dear Loard*
 

More times than I can count
   Your love has drawn so near,
      so strong, so sure, so certain,
          so supreme, sublime, surprising.

 You have taken such time and thought
and so many precious resources
to enable me to do what I do
and to be what I am.

My spirit fills with praise
   and gratitude for rich days past.
      For love of You my spirit soars
         to embrace the days ahead.

Whichever direction You take me in
I pray Your love to bide close by.

*I have known so much love from You, dear Lord