Monday, April 6, 2009

swamped, drained, inspired.

I wish I had more time to write lately. Unfortunately, school has been quite demanding recently, and in the free time I do get, I can't really bring myself to open a notebook and think really hard for an hour. The most frustrating part about it all, though, is that I have so much I want to write about. There is so much ambition, I just don't know really how to harness it.
Recently, this is all I've been able to muster. The title changes pretty much every time I write it out.

To Move Mountains

I'd be content to see
a mustard seed turn over
in a gentle breeze.



—It's very short; very simple. I was talking to a friend about "faith-sized" requests in prayer. It's the idea that with whatever amount of faith we have at a given moment, there are things we can ask of God—things with tangible results (like "God please give me the opportunity to talk to this person before Friday")—that are proportionate to that amount of faith. If we pray and have complete faith in the fulfillment of those prayers, God will answer us in one way or another.
The gist of the poem, then, is that if with faith the size of a mustard seed we can make a mountain move into the sea, I must have a long way to go. At best, I might have enough faith to move the mustard seed. The mustard seed is not only a reference to the proportionate size difference from the mountain, but it is also the representation of faith. As such, the poem is also a prayer, that God could use what faith I do have in Him to begin to move and grow that seed, causing it to build upon itself. The mustard seed is a double metaphor, I suppose.

1 comment:

Ben Moore said...

Thanks John.

That was a needed encouragement for me today.