Calm My Hurried Soul

Prose is my modus operandi -- and very plain "here and now" prose at that. But sometimes it just doesn't convey as much meaning as a few carefully chosen lines of verse. (I dare not call it real poetry...)

The following was begun on a few scraps of paper during my private devotions years ago. Maybe a decade. It wasn't until December of 2014 that I pulled together the scraps and added the second half.

Forgotten for a couple of years, I re-read it now and know I need to make this my prayer again.

I try to fly to Your presence
With my feet stuck in the mud.
My mouth says, “Praise You, Lord!”
But my mind is all aflood
                with the things I need to do today,
                a story read when I was eight,
                the way my back and body ache,
                and things too countless to relate.

My mind knows of Your power and grace
To calm my hurried soul,
But it needs to go much deeper
For You to make me whole;
                past the overloaded brain,
                distracted, in a daze;
                deeper than a routine prayer
                uttered with some shallow praise.

Calm my hurried soul;
May I rest in You again.
Sure I’m busy, Lord,
But that need not be a sin,
                unless life crowds out true living
                and plants hurry in my soul,
                and I cannot hear You calling,
                waiting now to make me whole.

Some busy years down the road
You make me lie down… long.
My broken body gave no choice;
My active strength all gone.
                I want to fight; You hold me down
                to trust that You know best;
                to stop to hear the Shepherd’s words,
                “Come to me, and I will give you rest.”

Though still so limited in strength
The urge is hunting me;
A daily struggle, this inner drive,
To find value in activity.
                What’s the truth? God loves me not
                for daily, checked-off lists,
                but just because He made me!
                Do I really believe this??

So, calm my hurried soul.
May I rest in You again.
Help me slow down, Lord
To hear Your voice within;
                fill my life with Your true living;
                plant Your stillness in my soul;
                through pain I hear You calling,
                at work to make me whole.

“Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10