For Bearers of Hurts and Disappointments

So much of faith's fight is fought in the hidden battlefield of the heart

where often God alone is witness of its tender triumphs and death-defying defeats!

God's call to faithfulness is not for the faint of heart nor for half-hearted endeavors!

Faithfulness is an all-in fight to the finish

often riddled with hurts and disappointments.

1 Cor.9:24-26

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize?

 Run in such a way as to take the prize. 

25Everyone who competes in the games trains with strict discipline. 

They do it for a crown that is perishable, but we do it for a crown that is imperishable. 

26Therefore I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight like I am beating the air. 

27No, I discipline my body and make it my slave, 

so that after I have preached to others, 

I myself will not be disqualified.

This poem began when dawn dripped from coral eaves...

Now the day is almost done awash with rain and leaves...

Where hurt and disappointment rakes relentless talons through

Where we wrestle with sacred stakes witnessed by only You

Where we are often tested by the fires of dismay

Our motives tried and tempted by the liar’s merchant sway

Where touch cannot make manifest, nor visage intervene

The substance of hope’s hidden quest of evidence unseen

Where the strait gate which faith is warned to press and strive toward

Bids us to endure hardness like a soldier for You, Lord

Bids us to put on the full armour only You supply

Bids us to be on guard for the Charmer of cunning ply

Bids us to lay our all upon altars of sacrifice

Bids us to heed the call without aversion to the price

Bids us to bear love’s cross in faith’s response of gratitude

Where what appears as loss on earth is but Heaven’s prelude

Where hurt and disappointment clings to grace that will not fail

While we wrestle with Reckonings that Your face will unveil

Grace crowns the law of Moses with the law of love’s decree

Knowing Your love that chose us is the law that sets us free

That the gift of salvation no mortal creed can undo

There is no condemnation for all who are found in You

Knowing You are not mocked; and that we will reap what we sow

Knowing not how we talk but walk is the fruit that will grow/show

While hurt and disappointment undo and refine the part

That only You bear witness to; the throne room/war room of the heart

Lord, there is nothing hid from You; nothing impossible

Where hurts and disappointments rue, You work the miracle

Where transformation’s work is wrought, not on a bed of ease

But in the thick of what is not according to our ‘please’

As we yield fear and dread and doubt to faith to undergird

And do not take one step without reliance on Your Word

Where hurts and disappointments hone the heart, so oft betrayed

To fix its hope and trust upon the Cornerstone You laid

© Janet Martin