waiting…we are not very practiced at it nowadays. Jesus healing in Gennesaret does not (I think,) preclude any waiting that may have occurred that day, or even for long seasons before. This poem is a perspective on waiting midst suffering, for healing to come.
Hope is Lean
Hope is lean
Her oiled sinews stretch
Straining toward belief.
Precipice after precipice
She clings.
Hope is lean
Conditioned.
As hardship disciplines
She perseveres
While God sculpts charity.
Hope is lean
Earth’s fleshy questions litter about;
she scavenges for precept
some days haggard, hungry.
Bold precept remains,
Midst empty wrappers
Of fear and uncertainty.
Questions remain.
They, too, grow lean with examination.
Deceptions strip away
Expose this truth:
It is God who clings.
Still, desperation beckons
Tests one’s strength.
Gutsy—hope resists;
The recklessness of despair
is a deep crevasse.
Hope is lean
Suffering’s muscled core.
It is Almighty God who clings.
jfig 11/19
1.Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. NLT
3-5. We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. NLT
Roasted Words 