I despised poetry just yesterday, but today something happened that made me almost fall in love with it (if I dare to venture that far). We read a selection of poems from Jane Kenyon and if I am completely honest it was some of the most abstract poetry I had ever read. How does art resemble a man's t-shirt or an owl landing on a branch that does not notice that it is there. That's when Emily came. Actually I went over to her, but she really gave me some wonderful insight into the creative writing mind. She said poetry is a way for a person to express their fears, anxities, joys, and whatever emotion they may be feeling in a way that just frees them. This is not a new idea, but tonight I really got it. After I understood that aspect I really enjoyed her poetry. Yes there are still some lines that I don't understand and others that just seem foolish, but through the reading I could feel her pain and experience her joy. I was the one that was missing the mark. At the end of the texts is a brief summary of the life that she led given by her husband. She did not travel an easy road; she suffered and eventually died from leukemia. This took a toll on her body as most treatment does which left her hands disabled. She couldn't read or write poetry. This had been her outlet for so long, which is what makes her poems written during the process that much more powerful. This is where God stepped in and the Holy Spirit really began to move in my heart.

He reminded me of how quickly I was to judge her poetry out of my ignorance and reminded me of Matthew 7:1-3:
Don't judge others, or you will be judged. You will be judged in the same way that you judge others, and the amount you give to others will be given to you. "Why do you notice the little piece of dust in your friend's eye, but you don't notice the big piece of wood in your own eye?


I did not know her story. Her pain and grief. Sorrow and loss. Or the joys that she got through writing. I did not know her. I quickly judged her actions based on how I am designed to vent out my spectra of emotions. She was crazy and weird and babbled on about nothing. However, this was the only way she knew how to deal with the pain. Through words she became vulnerable and allowed strangers to enter her life on an intimate level that many of us never will.

In ministry, the workplace, school, and just the mundane of everyday life, how many times do we look at the way people are dealing with things in their life differently than we do and brush them off? I think it happens more than we like to admit. We do not hang out with people who are emotionally needy or unstable, or too happy for us, act stupid in public. There are so many reasons the list could go on and on, but we all react differently to the same situation.

The real lesson is learned when we remove any preconceptions of that person assigned to them because of our ignorance and just listen. Here the story. Feel their pain. Just be there. I think we will find a richness to relationship that was never there before.

Every blessing,
Staci