Til we Reach that Golden Shore

This pressure in my chest,

Suppressed breath inside my lungs,

My heart aches watching them hurting,

I lift them up to God, above…



For I cannot remove their burden,

I can’t take away their pain,

I wish they wouldn’t feel lonely,

I wish they wouldn’t feel shame.



I can’t even promise “it’ll be okay,”

I can’t say “it’ll be over in time,”

Because this world we live on is a broken place,

And not everything gets better in our lifetime.



May we lift our eyes to Someone greater,

To the Creator of space and time,

Who lived, loved, suffered and died,

Body broken in order to bring wholeness to our lives.



Father, be their Refuge,

An anchor in the storm,

Hold them while they are crying,

Til we reach that golden shore. 

-Joy Lynn

What if the healing never comes?

A paralytic man, in his most broken state, is brought before Jesus (Matthew 9:2-8; Mark 2:3-12; Luke 5:17-25).  Jesus is well known in this time and throughout the region as not only a preacher but a healer.  Just imagine, this numbed man is lowered before the Lord, hopeful to be healed.   Jesus sees their faith and immediately extends the man a healing offer----forgiveness of sins.  You may know the end of the story.  Jesus doesn’t stop there but also heals the man’s body and he gets up and walks out of the place.

But I wonder….if the man simply laid there on his mat, at the feet of Jesus, and the only thing Jesus offered was forgiveness of all of his sins, if that would have been enough for him?  Could he remain in this terribly broken, frail body, continuing to pray for fleshly wholeness and be satisfied that his sins were forgiven and he would eventually experience true wholeness with Christ on the other side, in Heaven? 

Paul prayed fervently for healing/freedom from an unnamed thorn that was seemingly holding him back in life (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).  He concluded with God’s promise that His grace would be sufficient….healing wasn’t his to be had on this side. 

So what if the healing never comes?  Will He still be enough?

The Door

“I stand at the door and knock,” (Rev. 3:20)

Is what You say to me,

“Come, let’s sit down,

Chat and have a bite to eat.”



Hm, can we wait a bit?

There’s so much I need to clean,

My house has many cobwebs,

Many lightbulbs long been extinct.



Let me freshen things up,

Splash a new coat of paint,

Jab a broom at the cobwebs,

Before I let You in this space.



So I batten down the hatches,

Live reclusively,

Try to clean this up on my own,

Hardly able to breathe.



The dust and mold grow old,

In this house without windows,

The stacks of debris rise to the sky,

Hoarding every piece of my own history.



There You go knocking again,

I step out and close the door behind.

Jesus, I know You want in,

But I simply can’t let anyone inside.



It’s full of hazardous waste,

Honestly, a toxic dump,

This house should be condemned,

Simply burned from within.



“But that’s not My offer,

I want to free you from the stench,

To help you process the messes,

And sit with you, regardless.”



I’m not sure about this,

I’ve grown rather comfortable here,

It dark and it's dank,

But it’s what I hold dear.



“Well, My offer still stands,

There’s more to life than this,

You’ll be with Me in Heaven,

But I can also walk you through this.”



“I’ll sit in this mess,

We’ll work through it together,

I know you pray for “joy” constantly,

Well, I offer that kind of life abundantly!”  (John 10:10)



“Let me step into the door,

Let My light shine

In the darkest of corners

Through the hardest of times.”



“We’ll be in this together,

Not even just You and I,

For if you let them,

There’s a beautiful community on stand by.”



“But the choice is yours,

Do you want to be made well?” (John 5:6)

Hm, let me think about it….

I guess only time will tell….



Joy Lynn