Quiet Day

Today is Quiet Day on the VTS campus. Nobody is speaking from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

As I wander around the campus prayerfully, I'm also revisiting things I've written in the past. Here are two poems I wrote many years ago that speak to me today.

August 26, 1996

How do I focus on you, Lord?
How do I drop the statistics and snippets of songs,
Regretted past actions and various wrongs
And point my face upward to you?

Right now, I feel only like kneeling.
But if I look down, I’ll see footprints to follow,
Reminding me that my intentions are hollow,
Well-thought, but devoid of you.
After all, you see through.

But if I raise my face to the overcast sky
And await your grace, I’ll just wish I could cry
For my frivolous habits and self-centered goals,
And I’ll doubt once again in refillable holes.
I’ll retreat to routine and accomplish so little!
Only you know how I can get.
I’ll look up and feel further regret.

So all that remains is inside.
Whether it’s strict meditation (no hope of success)
Or more rumination (redundant, I guess),
In myself I will find no peace.
I’m helpless, to say the least.
So focus me, Lord! Remind me whom I serve
And promise me more than I truly deserve.
You’ve done it before, as I’m finding.
Sometimes, I just need some reminding.

September 14, 1999

And God wove a melody line,
A simple, seven-note theme
Which He proceeded to sing
As He weeded His garden.

And Satan came along
And loused up the melody
And sang four clashing notes
And thus created dissonance.

And God said, “Hey!
That could really be beautiful.”
And He allowed the dissonance
And created resolution.