Being Real
I pull on Perfection
Arrange Graces around my neck
I check myself, again and again
Holding all in
All that would displease God
It bloats me like an over full stomach
Don’t let it show
I teeter on tippy toe between the day to day stuff
Lest I trip upon a feather
The real, the shabby, the stained
All eventually Falls
I make every effort
To wear a saintly air
To banish selfish thought
To elevate Self
To behave as a Perfect Christian would
In the way I think God expects
I can try to hold it all back like King Canute the sea
But in an unexpected moment there it is
The Honest, Secondhand, me
Halo slips as from that Hill of Pride I fall
Into the grime, Reality Hits
That saintly veil ripped
I smell the rot, feel the slime
Deep in the mud
Human once again
All that I’ve been running from,
The acrid stench of death’s decay
Seems closer now than Sweet Eternal Bliss
Like it or not I am subject to the Stain
Deep in the Human condition
Unreal is too good to be true….
And sooner or later reality dawns
I am in it whether I like it or not
Up to my neck in weakness
I am flawed
Earth refined, is still earth
I can claim the rights of Heaven
But human nature overrules
Whilst I live and breathe in this world
My compass set to a magnetic North that lands me back to Earth
But then
If I could perfect perfection in my own strength
Would I need a Saviour?
If I can do only Right
How could I ever come to an end of myself?
When would I call upon His name and
Know deep in my heart, His forgiveness
To enjoy that sweet savour of His Grace
Each day begins and ends with God
I sift each moment in between
To extract Golden Specks of Blessing
Opportunities to hear God whispers
Each a new chance to follow His lead
In my eagerness I may run ahead, blind to signs of warning
And find myself once again soiled, covered in grime
I am reminded
It is in Christ my perfection lays
He loves me and through loving Him
Imperfect is made real
If I Love
The Thought,
The Word,
The Deed,
More than I love God
They become the Desires of Heart
And I have sinned
For it is then, that Desire Distorts
Come then to Him, dirty and frail and Let Him Love
Love Him – Love Him – Love Him
Loving Him is all
Return to Him your First love
Stand in Him
Be jewelled in Him
Forgiven in Him
Renewed in Him
Redeemed in Him
Live in Him
And become Real Again
Words and Pictures © Denise Stanford 2010
“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
Taken from The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
Within the Vine 