God Is Near
Sometimes.
Night closes in.
Darkness falls.
Brightness fades.
Day is gone.
Say what you want.
Think what you will.
But it’s true.
It’s there.
It’s real.
Suffering and pain.
Sometimes.
Anytime.
Is a long time.
When pitch black crawls.
At midnight’s call.
Yet all is not lost.
For something shimmers there.
Like stars above.
Canyon floors.
In that crevice low.
They fall so near.
So radiant seem.
Gladly beaconing.
Heaven’s lights.
At fingertips.
Always there.
But now so bleak the skies.
Like fireflies close they shine.
Only here.
In the deep, deep depths.
I see.
I don’t like suffering.
Disease.
Death.
Or pain.
Or broken things.
But when they come.
God is near.
Everything more clear.
In the surreal.
Is real.
Grace appears.
When sorrow comes.
I know I need the crushing waves.
Buffeting as they may.
To wash me over.
Into the day.
LG
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:20 PM
I recently purchased the Passion Talk series for my family. So far my husband and 14 year old son have been watching the dvds. We just finished up the 3rd “Hope” dvd. I want to say thank you for the poem. My husband and I have shared our share of crashing waves… sometimes even looking death square in the face. But, you’re right, His grace comes then. Ever so perfect. And as those waves hit us, we feel God’s love and grace buffing our hard, callous hearts.
As Charles Spurgeon once put it, “if you are to be a great help to others, you must pass through their trials. If you are to be instructed in the things of the Kingdom, you must learn from experience. The un-cut diamond has little brilliance, the unthreashed corn feeds no one, and the untried believer is of little use or beauty.
Many people have a comparatively smooth path through life, but their position is not the equal of the tested believer. If your face is now covered with sorrow, the day will come when you will bless God for that sorrow. From all your afflictions, His glory shall spring, and the deeper your sorrows, the louder you’ll sing.”
We don’t know what today is bringing you, LG. So thank-you for being you… and so faithful to share what God has called you to share. Your obedience is contagious. Suffering is a certainty, so we might as well be doing His work as the trials come.
My husband and I are coming together to pray for you and your family – Right now! Harmony
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:39 PM
You are my prayers and the prayers of many more.
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:17 PM
We’re with you. Life here in this broken but being transformed by the power of the Cross place can be so hard, and discouraging. Thank You, God, that we can see the cross from here! paul
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:10 PM
Death and Pain are near.
God is nearer.
Praying for God’s healing hands on you and your family.
Lisa
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:38 PM
Brilliant! It’s awesome to hear your perspective in the midst of whatever is going on in your world. Praying for you Louie. Your heart is sooo good. I’m grateful for all that God keeps choosing to use you in. Praying that you’ll press into this beautiful suffering!
Peace!
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:00 AM
I am a nursing student at Clemson University. I follow your blog every now and then and received your twitter update the other day. You will never know how much of an impact you have had on my life. The Passion conferences and other sermons I have listened to have caused me to seek who God is calling me to be in this life. It is my joy and the very least I can do to pray for your mom, you and your family. I see people in pain often who are very close to their last breath on this earth. I’ve come to realize that death is as much as a part of life as living; to God be the glory in it all.
October 23rd, 2009 at 3:10 AM
You’re a good poet.
nicely put the harsh realities of this life.
but “nicer” put the strong reality of God’s constant presence.
:)
October 23rd, 2009 at 4:00 AM
So poignant.
Praying ~
Gail
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:18 AM
No one knows the depth of the pain and sorrow of suffering… until it happens to them. Makes us more compassionate to go thru the fire, I think. There’s a reason for the season… we don’t like it, but He has a reason. Of this I’m convinced. If I weren’t so confident of this truth, I would pack it in and walk my own way. My fire has been blazing for 4 years.
I have no idea what you’re going thru right now. I am confident you will come out on the other side–healed and whole– no matter the outcome. I know you serve a Living God who is abundantly capable of all things.
You have been a voice to my struggling family members. God has His hand on you, Louie, of this I am sure.
God’s peace, God’s rest, God’s healing for you and your family is my request at the Throne. Amen and Amen.
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:18 AM
Thanks so much for this!
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:24 AM
so sorry dude….hang in there. i’m with you.
October 23rd, 2009 at 3:04 PM
Louie,
Thanks for sharing this…It is really good!
Praying for ya’ll often…
Karahly
October 23rd, 2009 at 3:32 PM
Wow, that was beautiful. Really beautiful. Thank you.
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:18 PM
so, so beautiful….
October 24th, 2009 at 1:56 AM
Louie and Shelly – I too am joining the many around the globe praying for you right now – and yes, God is near, oh so near, as He says: He is close to the broken hearted and those whose spirit is crushed by the tumult of this world. You have been a great inspiration to me over the last decade – and I know that even in this darkness you will continue to cry out to the One who is Light and who can and will bring you into His glorious light again, smiling too, with that big bright smile that only He can put on our faces. Shining like stars in the universe.
It is Jesus who took all your pain and suffering onto His broken body on the cross that life-giving day at Calvary, and it is Jesus who has carried you all through your lives, and it is Jesus who will continue to lift you out of whatever pain and darkness you now find yourselves in. It is all about Jesus. He is your life, He is my life, He is life.
Oh thank You Jesus Lord God Almighty for Louie and Shelly and now I ask that You would comfort them with the comfort that only You can give. Oh, how we love you Lord!!!
And so many love you 2 too!!
Thank you for sharing your heart with us.
October 24th, 2009 at 3:37 AM
Thanks Louie for sharing!
in reply i found something beautiful. its worth while to read it through:
Desperately, helplessly, longingly I cried: Quietly, patiently, lovingly God replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate and the master so gently said “Child, you must wait.”
“Wait you say, wait,” my indignant reply. “Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!
Is your hand shortened, or have you not heard? By faith I have asked and am claiming your word.
My future and all to which I can relate hangs in the balance, and you tell me to wait?
I’m needing a ‘yes’, a ‘go ahead’ sign, or even a ‘no’ to which I can resign.
And Lord, you have promised that if we believe, we need but to ask and we shall recieve.
And Lord, I’ve been asking and this is my cry: I’m weary of asking, I need a reply.”
Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate, as my master replied once again, “You must wait.”
So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut, and grumbled to God, “So I’m waiting for what?”
He seemed then to kneel, and his eyes wept with mine, and he tenderly said, “I could give you a sign,
I could shake the heavens and darken the sun, I could raise the dead, cause the mountains to run.
All you seek I could give, and pleased you would be; you would have what you want, but you wouln’t know ME.
You’d not know the depth of my love for each saint, you’d not know the power that I give to the faint;
you’d not learn to see through clouds of despair, you’d not learn to trust just by knowing I’m there;
you’d not know the joy of resting in me, when darkness and silence were all you could see;
you would never experience that fullness of love as the peace of my spirit descends like a dove;
you would know that I give and I save for a start, but you’d not know the depth of the beat of my heart;
the glow of my comfort late in the night, the faith that I give when you walk without sight;
the depth that’s beyond getting just what you asked, of an infinite God who makes what you have LAST;
you never would know, should your pain quickly flee, what it means that “my grace is sufficient for thee”!
Yes your dreams for that loved one overnight could come true, but OH THE LOSS if I lost what I’m doing in you!
So be silent my child and soon you will see, that the greatest of gifts is to get to know me.
And though oft may my answers seem terribly late, my most precious answer of all is still, WAIT.”
-Author Unknown
October 24th, 2009 at 3:44 AM
i don’t know what happen.. but it was only yesterday i shared about my experience of God at the moment. and I said.. He is my tower of refuge and strength!! and pray that it is th same for u guys too..
lotsa hugs,
Celine – kl – Malaysia
October 24th, 2009 at 10:04 AM
thanks very much for sharing this with us. :)
October 25th, 2009 at 10:35 AM
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Psalm 34:18
October 25th, 2009 at 12:39 PM
May you see the sparkles of God’s grace become huge beacons of light even in the midst of these shadows, and, soon enough, darkness will be gone, and God will still be with you.
Thanks for sharing, Louie. May God bless you in this moment.
Rodrigo – Sao Paulo, Brazil
October 25th, 2009 at 10:19 PM
Louie,
I really want to be there for your Mom during this time. At the last Passion City Church a few weeks ago, I gave my contact info to someone to pass on so that during my time of unemployment *7 months now* that I could visit with your Mom and be a companion, laugh with her, pray with her, take her where she needs to go. She knows me from when I regularly went to 722 and we saw each other there…. miss those days! Please, let me know how I can help!!
Marie :-)
October 27th, 2009 at 12:07 PM
The Lord led me to psalm 126 for you today, and knowing what He gives you in the dark you will proclaim out into the light. What a faithful, merciful Father he is.
October 29th, 2009 at 3:52 AM
I’ve had the lyrics from Crowder’s Shadows song going round my head the last few days/weeks.. ‘Life is full of light and shadows, oh the joy and oh the sorrow, oh the sorrow, and yet will He bring day from night, And yet will He bring dark to light’…
Will pray for you & Shelley and your family… thanks so much for sharing your heart even in this time of suffering.
November 1st, 2009 at 12:23 AM
Dear Louie and family,
As I was reading this blog tonight and the comments above, I prayed that God would give me just the right words to give you comfort.
He knows our hearts
He knows our pain
He comforts us
Through the pouring rain
Lift up your hand
Give Him your heart
The love He has given us will never part
From those we love and hold so dear
Those precious moments that draw us near…
You are in my thoughts and in my prayers. God bless you.
December 13th, 2009 at 12:52 AM
I love this poem! I keep coming back to read it again.