By Stephen Lowe, a senior music and secondary education major from Dayton, Virginia
Scripture: Romans 5:1-11 (NRSV)
Wandering
Slowly swirling along life’s labyrinth
Shade from the Summer heat
Warm winds breathe life into me
Cool clay beneath my feet
Reminds me that I am part of this Earth
That everything is stardust
And to stardust I will return
Walnut shells prick my feet
Sending pain signals shooting to my brain
Reminding me that this journey is painful
And that being human means feeling pain
But my journey connects me to something bigger
A cosmic force of Love called God
Joining me in communion with all creation
And whose ineffable presence is with me
Slowly swirling along life’s labyrinth
Wandering
I wrote this poem just over a year ago at the start of one of the lowest points of my life. I didn’t know it at the time, but that semester I would experience depression worse than I had ever experienced in my life before. This led me to self isolation, strained relationships and feelings of brokenness, worthlessness and despair. Fortunately, I had relationships and support structures in my life that allowed me to work on improving my mental health and reconcile the relationships that were strained during that time. As I have now come through this time in my life, I am beginning to see it more and more through the lens that Paul presents in Romans 5:3.
Paul says that not only do we rejoice or boast in our hope of salvation, but that we also “boast in our sufferings.” The word Paul uses in Greek here is thlipsesin, commonly translated as tribulations. When I think of the connotations of the word tribulations, I think of the darker times in our lives that we have no control over. I think of the times where I have felt most separated from the Love of God. What I think Paul is trying to say is that these lowest points of our lives are where God does the work of salvation and reconciliation. When we feel far away from God, that is when God can lay the framework for healing, restoration and reconciliation within ourselves and within our relationships with others.
Lent is a time for penance, a time to reflect on the brokenness of our world. A time to look at the brokenness of our lives and look for what God is doing in our lives. Like the woman at the well, God uses our broken times to call us into a closer relationship, to invite us to drink from the living water. During my depression, I had better prayer practices than ever before. I also discovered a love of writing poetry that I don’t think I would have discovered otherwise. I hope that this lent we are able to reflect on the brokenness in our lives, and drink in the living water of God that reconciles and refines in our times of tribulation.
Scripture: Romans 5:1-11 (NRSV)
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
6For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. 9Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.