The Best Five Years

Here are a few of poems that I've written this summer. A Butterfly Among the Greats The day began cold. I was out in it too early Or maybe I was there just right. Sitting in my chair They spoke of the greats But I, listening with only half an ear Was thinking about small things And the consequences of a cold day. My light sweater with its brown buttons Was certainly perfect for you then. I sat as still as I could Hoping the sun and the heat of that  Haven would save you. They talked of men and heroes The weak among the brave. They talked of the divine love And of the wings to be got. But I only thought of protecting The delicate pair that you already had. It was already so perfect This short life that you lived: The isolated transformation You, getting your wings. I think Plato would have approved. So was it really so bad that I only thought then,  Of you? To live another day:  That was my hope for you.                You...

There is a concept of desire that I keep coming back to in my walk with Christ this year. It is the promise given in scripture, “Delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). I’m not sure exactly where I came up with this idea, what sermon it was, what book I read, what conversation I had, but wherever I heard it, it has stuck with me. What God says is that if you look to him first for your source of joy and choose to delight in him and everything that he is, he will give you the desires of your heart. I think that when you love someone and delight in them, your heart begins to align with theirs. You naturally begin to want what they want and desire what they desire as you grow to delight in them more and more. And then it clicked. That is how loving and delighting in God works. As you continue to do so, your heart will line up with his will for your life, and you will begin to desire things which are good for you. You will desire things from a pure...