#22 It's All About Love

Reflecting on the cross and two poems to draw on love

I’m so glad remembering the Cross and the empty tomb is not just a one day thing.

Feasting and celebration are such a meaningful part of being human, and the liturgical calendar is a beautiful way to practice remembering. But I need the Cross on my heart every day of every year. I need the audacity of the empty tomb on the days I’m rejoicing, and the days that I’m weeping.

Quite simply, I need God’s love like I need the air to breathe.

On those days when moving forward feels too hard — on those days when the weight of the past feels too impossible, I need to remember why Jesus went to the cross. I need to remember his deep love for me — that is mine forevermore.

Here’s what his spilled blood and his resurrection did — as a child of God, you will never lose his love:

³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”^[j]

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[k] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans, chapter 8

For many years, I’ve asked God to help me understand his love, since life has felt so difficult, so disappointing in many ways. He’s been gracious to grow me. On this Easter night, as we begin another year of living out what God’s love on the cross means, I want to share two poems I recently had published. These poems reflect what I’ve been learning about God’s love, and I hope they’ll speak to you, too!

Thank you to

Kimberly Phinney

and The Way Back to Ourselves for cultivating a beautiful community of Christian Creatives — I’m honored to have my poems in the spring Journal, “In His Garden.”

Let Me Be Loved — One of the graces of suffering has been learning to separate my worth from what I “do” to find it in who I “am” as a child of God. It’s so hard right? I still find it to be a daily challenge, but those moments of embracing the freedom of God’s love are oh so sweet.

The Garden Within (after Isaiah 58:11) — There are days when clouds fill the mind, you probably feel that too. So I go to this promise from Isaiah 58, and I hope you’ll be encouraged, to seek God and his refining, living waters of love.
“The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”

Read the poems HERE. (Thank you! And please peruse the rest of the journal for some poignant poetry and essays!)

It’s hard to believe that I am coming up on the mid-way point in my year of writing and journaling through my 40th year, leading up to my 40th birthday in October! I haven’t quite reached my weekly goal, but I’m close :)

Next week, I’ll be sharing one of my “weekend vignette” mini-series, so stay tuned for that!

And since spring is in its glory here in Maryland, I’ll close this week with a few of my photos that pair beautifully with my poems. I invite you to sit, pause, and reflect on God’s deep love for you. Blessings, friends!

Happy Easter, friends. You are loved!