Day 73.

Many of life’s lessons are leant in the university of Hard knocks. My resolve of quiet dignity had unravelled when she crashed in upon me. The thief of time, however, had made me like a thirsty vagrant who stumbled from the dessert and came upon an empty well. My quivering lips were like the changing fortunes of an empty soul. They sought water and found none. The clichés of love became like dust bowls. Beside the empty well my broken clay vessel became like a potsherd lying in the parched sand. Sweet longings became bitter memories. The unwritten symphony of my heart became an ode to silence.

THE MIRAGE – 7/3/O2

As if all dressed in a silken gown
In love with an apparition, I fell.
But I was just a vagrant
Who from the desert,
Stumbled upon an empty well.

I an earthen clay jar
Became a broken cistern,
A potsherd
Scattered in the sand of sorrow.
Useless and meaningless
The clichés of love with no tomorrow.

Like dust bowls in the wind.
The memories of love
A fading mirage of hope.

My lesson was grand! God had given me the wings of inspiration feathered with poetry. My horizon had been lifted and I had gained, through it all, a clearer picture of God’s love. She had awakened something in my heart, and I will always be grateful for that.

The Vulnerability of love

I am the fool
Who jestered for the Queen
Resplendent
Bedecked with rare and precious jewels she showed.
Contemplating those charms and admiring her gifts.
Intoxicated by her presence
I played out my role bestowed.

It was a fleeting and glorious entertainment
On the stage of life
Then retreating to the solitude of my poverty,
My role
Without her,
When the finished act was unexplained wonderment.

A tragedy played out
On the stage of a human soul.
My life again became normal.

It was the ancient story that is always new. Thus, ended this chapter of my life. I felt God saying, ” Now that you are here let me show you what I can do. ” I was not to allow a dark past cloud a bright Future, neither was I to allow too much of yesterday to rob me of tomorrow.

This dalliance with loves vulnerability had awakened my soul and I was ready to move on in the cosmic battlefield as a soldier of the cross, not alone for He is my guide my comfort and my salvation. I had been blessed with another epiphany. I had seen God’s love for me. I had seen that God loves me passionately, like a lover loves his beloved. I had seen the pain He endures when His love goes unanswered. This was the climax of my quest begun as a young man when I heard the whisper of eternity, the quest for love and the quest for God had become one.

How faint the whisper we hear of Him,
When in the quiet we seek the dim.
Is it nothing to all you who pass bye
when we see Him on the cross to die?
The one who seeks and knows your name
Was prepared to die and bear your shame

Help me Lord to hear your call
Bring me to your feet, that I may fall.
Help me Lord to open my heart and hear your plea
That you dear God did die for me.

Sin is gone and heaven mine
From His cross my life will shine
As the God of eternity whispered my name
I found the one who took my shame.