Expressions at ChristChurch
Tonight was our 3rd annual Expressions event at ChristChurch. Once a year, we pull together the talented artists in our congregation to showcase the gifts the Lord has placed among our body. Notice in the flyer below that over 15 artistic mediums were involved throughout the course of the night. It made for a packed house tonight, with many folks from outside our church—or even unfamiliar with church altogether—in attendance.
This year I submitted a poem I wrote called "Unsatisfied." Below is the poem followed by my "Artist Statement," which helps give some more context for the origin of the poem.
unsatisfied
How long, O LORD, how long must I wait
For asylum and peace from your hand?
This world leaves me worn and ever so longing
With much injustice and malice by man.
I cannot plead innocent, quite surely the contrary;
Toward myself are my thoughts and deeds bent
And not toward my God and neither my neighbor.
Against you, LORD, you only, have I sinned.
Your grace is sufficient for this day and next
To sustain me as long as I live.
But faith in your promise I cannot engender;
Your grace, by your grace, is a gift.
I won’t be content in my nearness with you
Until my days numbered have ended
Or until you return, when surely and lastly,
My spirit to your hands is commended.
Every tear will be wiped, and pain is no more
Mourning and death will be gone.
Awaiting that day, I can’t help but plead
How long, O Lord, how long?
How long, O LORD, how long must I wait
For asylum and peace from your hand?
This world leaves me worn and ever so longing
With much injustice and malice by man.
I cannot plead innocent, quite surely the contrary;
Toward myself are my thoughts and deeds bent
And not toward my God and neither my neighbor.
Against you, LORD, you only, have I sinned.
Your grace is sufficient for this day and next
To sustain me as long as I live.
But faith in your promise I cannot engender;
Your grace, by your grace, is a gift.
I won’t be content in my nearness with you
Until my days numbered have ended
Or until you return, when surely and lastly,
My spirit to your hands is commended.
Every tear will be wiped, and pain is no more
Mourning and death will be gone.
Awaiting that day, I can’t help but plead
How long, O Lord, how long?
My Artist Statement:
Sovereignty. This is my favorite attribute of God, if I had to pick one. Not only is it intellectually and theologically stimulating to ponder that God is in control of all things, and that nothing happens without his ordination, but it is also emotionally comforting that he who is all-loving and is truly good is the one that is sovereign. This world is a lake whose every ripple is a result of a person’s actions. Even in the absence of those actions, the wind brushes against the lake creating ripples in their stead. Only the sovereign LORD can know how every ripple effectually intersects every other.
God has a plan that he is continually bringing about. The wonder of this plan is that it is bigger than you or me, and it has as its goal the ultimate glorification of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But God in his sovereignty has allowed for pain, suffering, and bad things of all brands to exist in this world. We cannot fully know how the LORD intends to use these things to accomplish his goal, but we can know that he knows. Only he is creative enough to have devised a victorious end with the means to its fruition.
I try to imitate God’s creativity by bringing order where it is lacking and adding intention where it is absent. But all too often my boat is capsized by the unforgiving waves of the world; at times, my efforts even aid the ensuing disaster. As a result, my expectations are unmet, my efforts are frustrated, and the outcome is not consistent with my intentions. In the midst of what feels uncontrollable, I am reminded that God is still in control and that he can provide that for which I am most longing…to be pulled from the waves and wreckage to the praise of him who did the saving.
God has a plan that he is continually bringing about. The wonder of this plan is that it is bigger than you or me, and it has as its goal the ultimate glorification of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But God in his sovereignty has allowed for pain, suffering, and bad things of all brands to exist in this world. We cannot fully know how the LORD intends to use these things to accomplish his goal, but we can know that he knows. Only he is creative enough to have devised a victorious end with the means to its fruition.
I try to imitate God’s creativity by bringing order where it is lacking and adding intention where it is absent. But all too often my boat is capsized by the unforgiving waves of the world; at times, my efforts even aid the ensuing disaster. As a result, my expectations are unmet, my efforts are frustrated, and the outcome is not consistent with my intentions. In the midst of what feels uncontrollable, I am reminded that God is still in control and that he can provide that for which I am most longing…to be pulled from the waves and wreckage to the praise of him who did the saving.
