Careless Words Haiku

Thorns under the skin

The wounds that cut the deepest

Careless words from friends

Fiery Darts

Accusing darts fired relentlessly

A hailstorm of fiery arrows

A flurry of lies that pierce to the heart

A flurry of lies that cut to the bone

 

Are we resisting this onslaught?

Or are we standing by passively?

Accepting this barrage of baseless guilt

Letting it define our identity

 

Wake up!

The punishment has already been taken

Our guilt has been transferred

Jesus takes all of our blame

 

So lift up your shield of faith

And bat every lie away

Never forget what Christ has done

Never let guilt from the past define you

A Haiku on Shame

Shameful whisperings

Encircle like hissing snakes

Corroding belief

Reject the Lies

I am not worthless

I am not an outcast

I am not hopeless

I am not hated

 

Depart from me empty lies

No longer will I tolerate you

You try to degrade me, to bring me to my knees in shame

But I will not yield

I will stand strong in what Christ has done for me

 

My God will tear down the strongholds you have made

His Love will heal the scars you left

What you convinced me to hide, He will call back to the light

In His acceptance will I find peace

And I will revel in the truth about myself

 

I am holy

I am righteous

I am redeemed

I am restored

Cracked Pots

Shattered pieces

Shards of clay

Life has handled us roughly

The once smooth texture

Now riddled with a thousand cracks

 

Damaged goods

Too far gone

We slide to the back of the shelf

Hide ourselves behind the unbroken pots

And we give up on ourselves

 

But He doesn’t

He searches in the shadows

For those who hide

For those whose confidence has shattered

To bring restoration and to bring new hope

 

Cracks of shame

Filled with the clay of grace

Old scars of torment

Now our tale of redemption

We step forward

Back into the light

Sunken Pits

Sunken pits in a vast wasteland

Designed to trap and maim

Mists of fog hang like a veil

All you can see is the next few metres

 

You climb out of one but fall into another

Again and again the pattern repeats

You are trapped in this cycle

Traversing this dead land alone

 

In every pit you fall comes the agonising choice

As your face lies in the dust

The silence screaming in your ear

Do you get up, do you try again?

Can you face the pain of the climb once again?

 

If the mist would rise

And your line of vision became unhindered

You would see the beautiful landscape ahead

You would see that this wasteland is finite

 

You are walking again but you are terrified

You walk in a shuffle

Your heart in your mouth with every step

If only there was a light to show you the way

 

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” Psalm 119:105

Secrets

We hide them away

In the recesses of our heart

Out of sight

Out of mind

 

But we don’t realise

That in the darkness they grow

Grow to dominate our thinking

And shape our identity

 

They bubble to the surface

In any moment of weakness

We try to keep them submerged

But their ripples distort everything we see

 

Let go

Of the need to hide

Of the fear of rejection

Take back control of your life

 

We let go

And the wounds of our past

Heal up into scars

And we can move on

Vows

The vows are read out
One by one
We commit ourselves to our Saviour
And He commits to us
Through the times of plenty
And through the storms
We will be together

But our hearts are drawn away
By men who promise freedom
Love with no commitment
To do what we want
With whoever we want
They say they’ll set us free
But they quickly bind us in chains
Strip our dignity, take all we have
And leave us broken and empty

But on our hand
We still have His token
His promise to us
To love us always
And so we turn back
We drag ourselves back to the altar

We walk down the aisle of the empty church
Our clothes torn, our body bruised
No longer that beautiful bride
That walked down on her wedding day
But He is there waiting
His love for us no different
Than the day He first set His eyes on us

As we return the restoration starts
The cuts and bruises heal
The torn clothes began to shine a radiant white
We are not what we were
But with every passing moment
We’re getting closer

He takes our hand
We go through our vows once again
Our love for Him burning brighter than ever before
Casting all other suitors into shadow
He reaches into our hearts
And cuts the chains of our previous connections
Released from our past
We are now in perfect unity with Him

Invisibility Cloak

A young man slinks down the street
A dusty cloak on his shoulders
His staggering steps are hidden from sight
He is the owner of an invisibility cloak

He found it one day in a cupboard in his room
As he shielded himself behind the four walls
It slid into his hands
“Cover with me and I will hide your secrets.” It promised

He put it on in front of the mirror
But the cloak did not change what he saw
Instead it gripped him in an iron lock of fear
How much worse, how much more pitiful
Would he look if he dared to take it off?

So everywhere he goes
He feels that his broken life is on display
There may be no mention
But he fears the silent judgement
The paranoia of the cloak seeping into him

But though his own eyes are not fooled
The cloak fools everyone else around him
He looks like he has it altogether
All his troubles are masked
They can see nothing wrong

But beneath the cloak he is decaying
Wasting away into a skeleton
As the drugs and the alcohol ravage his body
Devouring him alive
And no one knows to step in

As time went on he realised he had a choice
He could continue to wear the cloak and die
Or he could take it off
And risk rejection in order to gain freedom

He took off the cloak
And threw it away
And let those close to him
See what he had become

Seam of Gold

We look in the mirror
And we’re so disappointed
We feel like rocks
Coarse and craggy
Our imperfections jutting out
Ungainly and so noticeable
We feel like a worn out mess
Not a sculpted masterpiece

If we could chisel off the parts that annoy us
A part of our appearance
A part of our personality
We would
To become the person we feel we should be

But inside of all of us
Runs a seam of gold
Endless riches deep in our heart
Waiting to be discovered
A unique treasure that no one can replicate
Its value not affected by the outside

So don’t judge yourself by the outside
Don’t rule yourself out because of the way you look
Take hope in God’s love for you
“…For the Lord does not see as man sees;
For man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7 (NIV)