Thorns under the skin
The wounds that cut the deepest
Careless words from friends
Shame
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)
