Courage

What does it take to be courageous?
Not afraid of danger or pain, I am told
I wonder if there is anything
Courageous within me.

But the examples are all around
In physical strength
And changed lives
In new perspective...
Even my own.

And I have been faced
Through suffering
With those that show me
Day by day
How they trying to get it right.

One breath, one step
In front of the other
Trying and striving
And leaning on the One
Who has saved us.

Lost and then found
Suffering and then healing
On death's door, and now alive
The old has passed away,
the new has come.

Courage.

"Be brave.  Be strong.  Don't give up.  Expect God to get here soon." (Ps 31:24)

Letting Go

It is amazing when you

Have the courage to let go

Of the things that have held you

Like a bird in soaring freedom

So many times

I have thought there were

Choices that belonged to me

But they were for others to make

And there is freedom in knowing

It is not in the rescuing 

Or sweeping in and fixing

But in one thing that matters:   loving

Not loving based on good works

Loving unconditionally,

No matter the circumstance

Or whether I thought choices of others

Were the best ones.

Because I can only choose

What is mine to choose--

And I am learning 

To let my judgements

Go by the wayside.  

And when I heal,

What I know is that

I am learning how not to react

But rather, respond, with love

And THAT choice is mine:

How to respond to the circumstance.

And when I can see that growth

I know for sure

God is leading me

Changing me

Growing me

Every day.

One day at a time.