A POEM OF ENCOURAGMENT

As a Teenager, I collected and wrote poetry. I collected poetry from everywhere. I always added poems to my collection that I could resonate with. They had to mean something to me. Now years later, though I haven’t written any new poetry myself, or even really added to my collection, I still have my poetry book and look through it now and again.

Way back then when I saw this poem on the cover of a journal in a hallmark store, I knew it was special. Today and over the last year, it’s meaning has become so much more than I could have ever known. This past year, my world and life have been turned upside down. Through the chaos, uncertainty, fear, and sadness, this poem has brought me encouragement, reassurance, and strength. I did not write this poem but in a way, this has been my conversation with God. I have begged and pleaded with him for answers and to know what is going to happen. Being reminded that he is working in my life is so reassuring.

It is a rather long poem, but please read it to the end. No matter what you are going through in your life,  I know that you will be touched by these words.

WAIT

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried

Quietly, patiently, lovingly God Replied.

I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate,

And the master so gently said, “Child you must wait!”

“Wait?”, you say wait!” my indignant reply.

“Lord I need to know answers, I need to know why!

Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?

By FAITH, I have asked, and am claiming your word.”

“My future and all to which I can relate

Hangs in the balance, and you tell me to WAIT?

I’m needing a ‘yes’, a go-ahead sign,

Or even a ‘no’ to which I can resign.”

“And Lord, you promised that if we believe

we need but to ask, and we shall receive.

And lord, I’ve been asking, and this is my cry:

I’m weary of asking! I need a reply!”

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate

As the Master replied once again, “You must wait”.

So, I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut

And grumbled to God, “So I’m waiting. . . for what?”

He seemed then to kneel and his eyes wept with mine,

And he tenderly said, “I could give you a sign.

I could shake the heavens and darken the sun.

I could raise the dead, and cause mountains to run.

All you seek, I could give, and pleased you would be.

You would have what you want– but, you wouldn’t know ME.”

“You’d not know the depth of my love for each saint;

You’d not know the power that I give to the faint;

You’d not learn to see through the clouds of despair;

You’d not learn to trust just by knowing I’m there;

You’d not know the joy of resting in me

When darkness and silence were all you could see.

You’d never experience that fullness of love

As the peace of my spirit descends like a dove;

You’d know that I give and I save. . . (for a start),

But you’d not know the depth of the beat of my heart.”

“The glow of my comfort late into the night.

The Faith that I give when you walk without sight,

The depth that’s beyond getting just what you asked

Of an infinite God, who makes what you have last.”

“You’d never know, should your pain quickly flee,

What it means that ‘My grace is sufficient for thee’

Yes, your dreams for your loved ones overnight would come true,

But oh, the loss!! if I lost what I’m doing in you!”

“So, be silent, my child, and in time you will see

THAT THE GREATEST OF GIFTS IF TO GET TO KNOW ME.

And though oft may my answers seem terribly late,

My wisest of answers is still but to WAIT!”

-Author Unknown