Rest
"...be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." (v.14b)
Rest:
a faint dream for many
a treasured commodity
in a fallen world,
a thing so needed,
yet so easily interrupted.
The Garden was a place of
rest,
no violence in creation
no weed or thorn
no cleft between God and man
no reason to hide
no cause for fear
no need unmet
no grief to face.
Bright sun
pure love
unfettered peace
unstained beauty
man and God
worship and love.
But a voice
interrupted the rest:
strategies of death
words of deceit
actions of rebellion
fingers of blame
expulsion from the Garden
judgment and death
rest interrupted
rest shattered.
So we wait for the Lord.
His grace strengthens
His presence comforts
His promises assure
His power activates
His rule guarantees
that someday rest,
real rest
pure rest
eternal rest
will reign once more.
No violence in creation
no weed or thorn
no cleft between God and man
no reason to hide
no cause for fear
no need unmet
no grief to face
between God and man.
Yes, rest, true rest
will live again
and last forever.
So we wait for the Lord
to restore us to that place.
Bright Son
pure love
unfettered peace
unstained beauty
God and man
together forever.
Until that day,
with hearts
that are strong
and hope
that is undimmed
and joy
that embraces the future,
We wait for the Lord.
posted by Paul Tripp Ministries @ 1:03 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Mr. Tripp,
Your blogging usually opens my mind to a new dimension in my thought and attitude. I appreciate your insight tremendously.
However, I find your poems to be less than satisfying...They seem lazy to me, like you didn't quite muster enough to write a prose that day. If you must write poetry, please give us the same kind of punch that you share through your prose. I believe you are able and can when you choose.
Thank you for your poem on rest. As a mother of a 2 year old and a 2 month old my desire for rest is insatiable! I was encouraged and relieved to be reminded of the one true rest in God and given a fresh vision of what that rest will be like one day. Thank you.
Thanks for your poetry that reminds me again of
Creation - Fall - Redemption.
In response to anonymous' comment: I disagree wholeheartedly about this poem being lazy and less than satisfying. My former pastor, Sean Cordell is known to say, "Style should be a non-issue and content should be everything". He was referring to worship/music within the church, and I believe it also applies here, because I don't believe Mr. Tripp's writing was meant to be perfectly stylistic, but rather, was meant to be an act of worship.
But since we're talking about style here, let me add that there's something raw and beautiful about this type of List Poem, in that you allow your reader some dignity and creative license by leaving it simple, so they can sort of "fill in the blanks". And similar to the Haiku, where it's glory lies in it's brevity of line, I think this poem is tremendous!
The content of course, or rather, the truth behind the content, is what is most satisfying and glorifying here. I was blessed, and I worshipped as I read it.
I just finished reasing your article in the AFA Jounral of Feb 2009.
I find your comments about the "greatest scandal of the Goospel in our generation is the presence of single and divorced families in our church" to be most offensive and judgemental.
As a Christian divorced woman , I can say that divorce is a truly terrible thing and couples should do everything possible to avoid being in that situation. However, I do believe that God in His grace sometimes has another plan for people than that they suffer for a lifetime in a horrible marriage with a spouse who does not love them.
I personally was married for 22 years to a man who only loved only himself and had little time or interest in me or our children. I was lonely from the first year of our marriage. Although we both were mature Christians leaders in our church, I was verbally, physically and emotionally battered for the last 10 years of our marriage. We went to multiple good Christian and secular marriage counselors over a 10 year period with no improvement at all in our marriage, only a continual worsening of our relationship. After 20 years of marriage, I confirmed what I had long suspected, that my husband had been having an affair. I just never new for sure if it had been going on for 3 years or 5 years or longer. In the end, after 3 years of a horrible divorce battle, we could have kept on trying to slavage our relationship, but what for? More years of suffering, of loneliness and abuse? God has permitted divorce in cases of adulty and abandoent and we should not judge people who have found a new and better life by taking God up on His option. I am happily (not perfectly) rearried to a godly man who loves me. Praise God for second chances and healing and for repaying me "for years that the locusts have eaten".
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