Are They These?

Living the Words on the Page

Living the Words on the Page
for Gabrielle
May 25, 2019

“I can do all things, through Christ who gives me strength,”
I must say you’ve chosen great words of power.
Do you want to know the key to unlocking those words?

Because you know those words are meaningless,
At least they are on their own. They are simply
The markers, the reminders, the mere mention
Of the power lurking within them, and they feel good,
Sound good, look good, written, engraved, printed,
Stuck on a bumper, or hash-tagged and shared,
But they are only words.

They are like the words on your diploma:
Gabrielle Frances Jackson, High School Graduate.
Just some words on a page, marking truth,
Job done, box checked, rite of passage passed.

But depth lies underneath and inside words.
You know this better than most because
You took a different journey from most of us,
And your paper reads the same as ours does,
But it represents for you a story, of struggle,
Triumph, fear, failure, fighting, friendship,
Worry, panic, patience, peace, prayer, love.
Life. Don’t flee from it. Embrace it. All.

The key to the meaning of words is the life behind them.
I can do All things through Christ, who gives me strength.
Live these words. Embrace All the things you are doing
Because Christ has given you strength to do them.

These words are not for some future thing left undone,
Leaving All undone and untried because you fear failing,
Knowing such failing could cost you Your faith, and you
Hold your faith tightly in your hand, protecting it at All
Cost, but inside you know that doing such is not to use
Faith at All, leaving it only as words, remembered, but
Left there on the page, like they’re placed inside a tomb.

No, roll the stone away, let them live through your moments,
Each moment, All moments, and then, and only then
Will you find the strength to do All things. . . Right now,
This moment, and always. Living the words makes them
Living words...