Entry 3: Photosynthesis - 9/14/22

In todays journal I will be analyzing and breaking down a previous poem. I wrote this poem in a moment when I felt overwhelmed by grace. I want to explain it so you can share the beauty of it with me.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Said "I do not remember every book I have read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me"

This can be said about our habits and actions too. What meals have you been filling yourself with? What are you the product of? In the second part of this journal I will talk about feeding your spirit and what I have been feeding mine. 

Poem Introduction

The poem I will be breaking down is one I have already posted on this website and it is called “Life is a Beach" (Click Journal) Before I actually breakdown this poem I want you to understand where I was mentally and physically when I wrote this. It was March 18th, 3 AM in Naples Florida. I was visiting a friend in Florida and one night woke up and couldn’t fall back asleep. As I was laying their on my back, restless, with my eyes open, I felt the words come to my mind “Lord oh Lord, for your grace runs as far and broad as the depths of the ocean”. So I decided to write it down. Later that day I was sitting in the warm Floridian sun enjoying the contrast to Minnesota and it’s frigid wind. While I was absorbing the rays and vitamin D I felt overwhelmed with the thought of Gods grace and I remembered the words I wrote earlier. I pulled out my phone and just started putting my feelings into words. I wanted to convey my inner most emotion of Gods grace as accurately as I could and so here it is.

Life is a Beach

Lord oh Lord, for your Grace runs as far and broad as the depths of the ocean. Through my sinful nature, my spirit and body straddle between righteous surrender and selfish ill-advised “control” on the earthly shoreline of your heavenly ocean of Grace. I write my iniquities in the sand, but because of your Grace, Jesus’s ocean of blood raises its tide and removes my sin from the sands of time. But righteousness is like a palm tree on the beach, for even the strongest of winds cannot uproot it, even after the most tremendous of storms, and the highest most powerful waters, it will not falter. Just as a man who lives in righteousness will endure the trials of this world. He who is planted in the word of truth and righteousness will abide in Christ. He will remain triumphant. 

Poem Analysis

It starts off by making a comparison of Gods grace to the ocean and it’s ginormous volume, (even the ocean is not comparable to the abundance and steadfastness of Gods Grace). Next I write about straddling between the sanctified feeling of Holy surrender and selfishly falling to the temptations and desires of my flesh. Through “Righteous surrender” all anxiety vanishes and God becomes the light unto my path. But because the heart is deceitful above all things and is incurably sick (Jeremiah 17:9), I fall short and lean on my own understanding. I try to paint the picture of the ocean representing grace and heaven, while the beach is “selfish ill-advised control” and earth. Next I talk about writing my iniquities in the sand. This is supposed to refer to every time I sin, but through repentance and Christ’s blood, my sins are washed away from the sands of time. I wanted to create the picture of earth and heaven with the beach and ocean to show that it is only through the blood of Christ that we have the inter-dimensional connection of Gods Love and spirit in us. The rest of the poem beautifully explains itself through an analogy of a palm tree during a storm and a righteous man living through the trials and temptations of life. The last word of the poem is triumphant because he who believes Christ died for his sins and lives in righteousness will be victorious, he will stand when others fall because he has the strength of God filling his weaknesses.

Filling The Spirit

Just as our body needs healthy food to thrive and be able to perform at peak performance. We also need to fill our spirit with the correct nutrients of truth and life. What are those nutrients? At the core I believe it starts with your daily bread. The living words of Christ. The Bible. I also think there are other ways to help fill our spirit, and that is through expression. I have heard that expression is the opposite of depression. Through forms of expression like talking about my feelings, journaling, exercising, and playing violin, I am feeding my spirit, I am quenching my soul. Not only do these make me feel joy but they are also a form of worship. Through all that I do I want to be a reflection of Christ. Next time your feeling down or depressed ask yourself “what am I suppressing?” Maybe you are suppressing something you do not want to express and this is making you go through life depressed? 

The bread I have mostly been filling my spirit with, is Paul’s letters from 1-2 Corinthians. About a year ago I felt as if I was in a mental and physical “cave”. A cave comparable to the one David wrote about in his laments in Psalms. Those writings helped me get through my cave and now I read Paul words in preparation for YWAM and the mission work I will be apart of. 

Thank You