Ascension - A Poetic Reflection on 2024

Showing up…

When it feels like nothing is changing,

When it feels like everything is changing,

When it feels easy,

Exciting,

Life-giving,

When it feels like death,

When it feels inconvenient,

When it costs me something.

When He asks me to put my heart,

My comfort,

My safety,

My identity,

My sense of value,

My accomplishments,

On the altar.

My Isaacs tied under the gleaming knife,

Hoping, praying, there’s a ram somewhere,

Caught in a thicket,

That will make for the sacrifice instead.

Holding on for dear life,

As another wave crashes over the side of the boat.

The motion of these waves

Leaving me nauseous,

The horizon out of focus,

And Jesus sleeping peacefully through it all.

Walking in circles,

But believing I’m ascending up the mountain, even so.

No longer praying to the point of exhaustion,

But worshiping God,

Through the fear,

And the triumphs.

The mundane,

And the celebrations,

The unknowns,

And the certainties instead,

And believing that is enough.