"Be Merciful to Me, A Fool"--A Poem...My Prayer

Years ago I found this poem. When I found myself without words because I knew I had kept heaven from earth by my own foolish choices...was so undeserving of mercy...and yet in such desperate need of it...I would whisper these words...Even now there are times when shame of my own stupidity drowns eloquence and honor...and all I know to plead is, "Dear God, be merciful to this fool."

THE FOOL'S PRAYER
by: Edward Rowland Sill (1841-1887)

HE royal feast was done; the King

Sought some new sport to banish care,

And to his jester cried: "Sir Fool,

Kneel now, and make for us a prayer!"

 

The jester doffed his cap and bells,

And stood the mocking court before;

They could not see the bitter smile

Behind the painted grin he wore.

 

He bowed his head, and bent his knee

Upon the Monarch's silken stool;

His pleading voice arose: "O Lord,

Be merciful to me, a fool!

 

"No pity, Lord, could change the heart

From red with wrong to white as wool;

The rod must heal the sin: but Lord,

Be merciful to me, a fool!

 

"'T is not by guilt the onward sweep

Of truth and right, O Lord, we stay;

'T is by our follies that so long

We hold the earth from heaven away.

 

"These clumsy feet, still in the mire,

Go crushing blossoms without end;

These hard, well-meaning hands we thrust

Among the heart-strings of a friend.

 

"The ill-timed truth we might have kept--

Who knows how sharp it pierced and stung?

The word we had not sense to say--

Who knows how grandly it had rung!

 

"Our faults no tenderness should ask.

The chastening stripes must cleanse them all;

But for our blunders -- oh, in shame

Before the eyes of heaven we fall.

 

"Earth bears no balsam for mistakes;

Men crown the knave, and scourge the tool

That did his will; but Thou, O Lord,

Be merciful to me, a fool!"

 

The room was hushed; in silence rose

The King, and sought his gardens cool,

And walked apart, and murmured low,

"Be merciful to me, a fool!"

I Am Second--Josh Hamilton

For His glory...everything else is detail...

Because Josh Hamilton knows there is nothing like being second....

I've Been Blessed Deep

I have been blessed with some amazing...AMAZING...friends, family, and friends who look like family. Steven Sauke is one of my little brothers by a different mother. He has blessed me immensely with words of encouragement, the most creative hugs I've ever seen, and his deep, faithful love. Today he blessed me with a blog. Please drop by his place to read the blog and see the blessing.

"Have You Considered my Servant Jerri?"

Real

She relays the information almost mechanically. Somewhere behind the words are the tears.

She is scared.

I am scared for her.

Her husband is sick. Very sick. Could die sick.

She doesn’t say it, but I hear it in what she doesn’t say. It’ll take a miracle.

I have nothing. I refuse to tell her somehow God will make it okay because it is not okay.

She is not okay.

I am not okay.

At that moment in time, nothing is okay.

And I have nothing. No words. No hug. No….anything.

Except, I do, and I walk myself right into the throne room of my Daddy and look into His face, and as she talks aloud, I talk silently.

“Surely You did not take me through that to leave me with nothing to help with. Surely that hell served no purpose. I need something. Her world is crumbling, and she needs somewhere to land, if only for a moment. Please, Daddy, give me something to give her.”

No booming voice. No big production. Just a quiet thought of what I would have wanted…what I still sometimes want.

“Are you busy?” I ask.

Well, she has some plans. Needs to take care of some things. Trying to fumble through life’s quicksand.

“Do you want to come over here?”

Not really. She needs to handle some stuff, tick things off her check list…feel some sense of control and enjoy the escape while doing it.

I understand.

“What is your favorite beer?”

Her voice says she is confused, but she tells me anyway.

I write it down.

“Okay. This is what we are going to do. I’m going to buy that beer and have some of it cold from now until we get to the other side of this. Whenever you need to, you come over here. We are going to sit on the deck. You can scream and rage about how unfair this is, about how this stinks, about how you don’t understand, about how it hurts more than you could EVER dream, about how you have no clue how you are going to get through, about how angry you are, about all those things you would never unleash to anyone else. My house and my deck is your safe place to say whatever you want, use whatever language you want, to drink however much you want. I will either take you home, or you can sleep in the guest room. Whatever. But this is where you can come and be real. There is no judgment, no answers, and no pressure to be better. Whatever you need to be—even if it is silent, you can be it here.”

I hear it in the silence. That inhale that comes in the silence of a breath caught between the smile of gratitude and the sobbing of being found.

“You really do understand, don’t you?”

I swallow the tears so words will come. “Yes. I really understand.”

Quiet comes, and we sit with phones to ears, hearts together.

“I need to get busy, so I’ll let you go," she finally says.

I tell her to have a good day, I love her, I’m praying, I’ll keep the beer cold.

“I love you, too.” That is the first smile I’ve heard in her voice…and it is real.

Smore to God Than I Imagined

I just think God is so crazy cool.

I ask Him for something like one of those goofy 25 cent toys out of the machines at the store, and He shows up with Smore makings. Not only does He always out do what I ask for, He does it with creative flair that makes my heart all warm and marshmallow-y. Never saw God as a hopeless romantic before, but now, I seem Him like that all the time.

I think it is because I'm His favorite. :-)

It Really Is THAT Simple

Okay, I'm trying to think of a really cool alliteration for the title of this post because I don't want it to be bland or intimidating. I want it to be EXCITING because the Bible IS exciting. Learning God's Word, hearing His heart, understanding Him...THAT is wondrous stuff.

Unfortunately, I think people have made it hard. The truth is learning the Bible is easy. Really. I wouldn't lie about this.

I get asked fairly often how I know so much about the Bible. Let me say up front, I do not consider myself a Bible scholar. I don't get into the whole theological religiousity of it all. My Bible knowledge is not from a library of books or a college Bible program. I don't have time for all that.

I also don't have time or patience for hard reading programs. Really? Someone wants me to keep that paper that tells me to read all those disjointed chapters for a whole year? Thank you for thinking I am either that organized or I really care that much.

Nope. I need simple. So here it is. Jerri's super spiritual, only religious if you make it that way, don't need anything but a Bible reading program:

Three chapters a day.

Seriously. I learned tons about the Bible by simply reading it.

All I did was read three chapters a day. By reading three chapters a day, I could finish the Bible in a year, so I did.

About 22 or 23 years ago, I started reading the Bible through from beginning to end. I did that for three or four years in a row. It is like any material. If I expose myself to it enough times, my mind will retain it. I just kept reading it over and over.

I didn't read it to study it or for memorization purposes. I simply read it. Beginning to end.

The wonderful thing is I didn't have to figure out which day I was on or try to catch up. I could start any day of the year and simply read the next three chapters in the Bible. Doesn't get any simpler than that.

So now you know. I'm no Bible genius. I'm just a Bible reader. It really is that simple.

Merciful Firecrackers

You know one of the wondrous things about God is His amazing mercy.

He looks at us and says, "You are doing something stupid, and you know it is stupid, but you're still doing it. Obviously you need me to save you from yourself because that thing you think is a crackerjack is really an A-bomb in the making."

Then He gives us a hard slap on the wrist, and we whine about the slap on the wrist that saves us from the major explosion with potential to destroy us.

I am thankful for the slap on the wrist.