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MUST KEEP TRYING

Contents:
1.  God's Secrets To Teach Me Love
2.  Giving God My Own Will
3.  Must Keep Trying
4.  The Finishing Touch
5.  How Shall I Grow?
6.  Poking My Head Up
7.  A "Timely Lesson" from the Courthouse Tower
 

1. GOD'S SECRETS TO TEACH ME LOVE

Scented pansy-flower
Growing on brow of dried out hill --
You are God's secret,
Whispering of his character traits, to me.
I breathe in your fragrance,
And see that delicate things may thrive
In spite of adversity.

Unpleasant encounter
With a "wow" of a man named Bill --
You are God's secret,
Building more endurance, patience in me.
I do not admire your flagrance,
But in tough things, let me strive
To overcome animosity.

Illness to beleager,
You pack a "pow," and out comes a pill;
But you are God's secret,
Making it clear I can't "depend on me!"
May you be charged with vagrance,
Soon over: yet however I manage to come alive,
I learn from course in God's university.

God shows me his power,
When I see how he uses beauty and spill
Alike to shout his secret,
That there's hope, yet, to shine from me.
May I be his delicate fragrance,
Remaining pure, though in hard places I thrive;
May my inner motive power be only God's velocity!

--

2. GIVING GOD MY OWN WILL

I give my own will, my own desires, into God's keeping, and ask that his will be done in my life. Then "he is able."  In all things, I can trust that his will is being done in and through me. I can walk confidently, trusting him to guide me. If there's "more" I need to know, or a special call or duty to perform, let him show me clearly. Otherwise, I will do "what comes to hand to do," -- all the while resting in the knowledge that I am in his perfect will and keeping.

--

3. MUST KEEP TRYING

I do not know why,
When I'm so sure I've heard rightly
Some inner voice's urgent call,
Prodding me to "do" some great thing, brightly,
(Which if I do not "do",
Seems like it may not get done by anyone,
Ever, at all);
Or even having heard, although shyly,
Demand to "be" some noble person, sprightly,
(Which within me clamors "to be",
A thing that other persons would be
No good at being, after all);
That I still my purpose descry,
In that I FAIL, and thus dislike me!

My good intentions must be taken lightly,
(So that I am moved to cry,
In deep humiliation of woundedness,
"I am just no good to anybody
On earth, at all!)

But this I know,
There is no failure I would face more sadly
Than the one called, "Okay, I've had it!
Now I just give up!"
Where would be life's glow
If there were no more trying, gladly,
To accomplish --even were achievement
Simply "to be me"? No, let me sup
Of life's full palate, then show
Determination -- even if to live madly!
(Eagerly, or even sadly!)
For tomorrow I may hear again
That golden, inner voice offering
Spilled over, brimming cup.

Oh, let me flow
With the currents of "trying," even badly,
Rather than saying "I can't do";
"I'm not cut out to be useful.
So I just give up!"
If I keep listening,
Inner voice will turn out right, e'en so!
Let me not count my failures,
But only those good-feeling times
When -- "Hey, I really tried!"

(Perhaps I will fail again, ingloriously,
But yet by God's good pleasure who writes my way,
I shall, in the end, "do" exactly
What was meant "to be."
Come, friends, rejoice with me!
To the graces of abundant living,
I want never to cry out, "NO!"
I must keep trying, living.
So let the life-currents go on, and glow!

--

4. THE FINISHING TOUCH

How easy, just to quit today
Because the going is rough;
But then I'll never get to say:
"Look what a fine job I did!"

So let me keep trying to find a way,
And when I've puzzled long enough
The pieces will fall in place to say,
"No more a mystery hid".

I'm glad I don't give up on me
Every time I'm not progressing
As I wish I could be!
The must-do things of life
Cost my sweat and tears;
Oh, let me persevere
Until I achieve the finishing touch,
Thus calming my failure-fears.

--

5. HOW SHALL I GROW?

Dandelion,
Pushing up even through cracks
At the side of busy street,
Why is it you never "give in"?

Dandelion,
Do you have, then, a lesson
For me about the life I meet?
Oh yes, I see -- your message is:
"If you give up, that's not livin'!"

Dandelion,
Like you, let me remember
To keep on keeping on!

--

6. POKING MY HEAD UP

A dandelion is the stubbornest plant!
It will grow almost anywhere;
It seems to like the struggle
Of poking its head up
Through asphalt, in cracks everywhere.

Am I as determined to grow for God?
How can I send my roots deep, where
Struggle is overcome? How push upward
To find the ways
God wants me to learn to share?

Perhaps I grow most wisely through prayer,
God being the Helper who's always there!

7. A "TIMELY LESSON" FROM THE COURTHOUSE TOWER

The old clock never was put in at all!
Way high, in the courthouse tower
Was a face whose bold, dark hands
Pointed always to the same hour.

The architect and city fathers
Planned later to put in a magnificent clock,
But voters couldn't raise money enough
To install the clockworks to keep real hour.

So for years the clock-face gave testimony
To a dream that failed when times were tough.
Yet the courthouse and its tower looked beautiful
From outside, and the huge hands were placed
At the hour and moment Abraham Lincoln died:

Perhaps that reminder gave more pause
For thought than any changing
"True" daily time could bring with power.
And my inner dream also will wear a timeless face:
For I crave to walk with God, within his grace.
May he lead me safely through,
Whether my days are serene or rough!