Beautiful Poetry

Although the fig tree blossom not,
And all the vines of our small plot
Be barren, and the olive fail,
The sheep grow weak and heifers frail,
We will rejoice in God, my love,
And take our pleasures from above:
The Lord, our God, shall be our strength
And give us life, whatever length
On earth he please, and make our feet
Like mountain deer, to rise and cleat
The narrow path for man and wife
That rises steep and leads to life.

-- John Piper

I really like Piper's poetry, and I think it is one of the coolest parts of his ministry. Some days I find myself writing poems in my head, but I never really get around to writing them down for whatever reason. It wasn't until tonight that I realized that my "head" poetry is really similar to Piper's in terms of the meter. He fairly consistently rhymes in pairs of lines, or alternating lines, and will often carry a sentence past the break of the line, so as to match words from the middle of his sentences.

I should write some of my poetry down. But it probably won't ever find its way online... :)

Thomas Watson

"Christians, do you have a sad resentment of other things and not of sin?"

I just finished Watson's "Doctrine of Repentance," which I have started to read many different times in my life but never finished. It takes hard work to get through anything written by a puritan, and Watson is one of the easier ones. Every paragraph I read made me want to put the book down, journal, and work on something in my life for a month or two. It felt weird to plow through pages at a time.

One of his best thoughts -- and by best I think I mean most applicable to me -- was in a section in which he was discussing repentance among the church:

"Repent of your non-improvement of talents. Health is a talent; estate is a talent; wit and parts are talents; and these God has entrusted you with to improve for His glory. He has sent you into the world as a merchant sends his factor beyond the seas to trade for his master's advantage, but you have not done the good you might. Can you say, 'Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds' (Luke 19:18)? O mourn at the burial of your talents! Let it grieve you that so much of your age has not been time lived but time lost; that you have filled up your golden hours more with froth than with spirits."

This thought got me pretty good. A few months back I was able to have coffee with an old mentor and family friend, whose advice to me was to find my talents - to look at the things that I enjoy doing and that I am good at. Why? Because God has made me with a unique concoction of talents and passions, which are His gifts to me, and He expects me to use them! How am I improving on, and nurturing, the talents that God has given me?