There is Hope and Telling Yourself the Truth

There are, seemingly, two kinds of poems: the kind that expresses something, and the kind that tells me something. Poems like “There Lived an Old Bat”, “Run Not From Me” and “Explaining It’s an Art” are expression poems. Poems like “Pride” and “As You Will, I Am” are instruction poems. “There is Hope” is most certainly an instruction poem, designed not to express despair or depression, but counteract it. Indeed, there is likely no coincidence that nearly all of my Christian poems are instruction poems.

It would be grand to be the sort of poet who writes great songs of worship that sore with exultant emotion as one meditates on God’s nature, but more often than not I must write from a far lower place, instructing myself about God’s nature and finding in it a steady peace to counter the wild fear, the rushing anger, or the weighty despair I would otherwise succumb to. Blessedly, by the time I was self-aware enough to contemplate the workings of my own mind, I knew enough about God to run to him… eventually. It’s from just such a place that I wrote this poem, some time during my preteen years.

There is Hope

Thanks for reading! I hope you feel encouraged.