Ashes

The fire blazed
and in the flames I gazed
upon the fuel - 
the false self feeding this renewal.
It is awareness that strikes the match
and dispatches the light
roaring into the darkness.
Though this heat is intense,
it only speaks of how immense
your glory and goodness truly are.
I fed myself to the flames
of your love,
resigned to the reality of
how fragile, how weak, how lost
I am without the gift of your grace.
It is only when we're burnt to ashes
that like the phoenix who hatches
beneath the layers of what was
do we get to experience the resurrection
of what is
and taste the sweetness 
of what is still to come.

Justin Farley

Hello, everyone! I have recently published my first chapbook of Christian poems titled “A Voice in the Wilderness – A Chapbook of Poems about God”. This has been developed and polished over the past six months or so. I am happy with the final product and hope you find encouragement in the poems but also a validation that the spiritual life is not all sunshine and rainbows. We all struggle. We all have periods of questions and/or doubt. But it is the yearning that keeps us coming back for more and allows us to experience joy.
You can purchase either on Amazon or on my own bookstore (it is cheaper and has free shipping on my store) and is available on the Kindle and in paperback.
Amazon: Kindle Paperback
Inkspiration Books (my bookstore): Paperback
Thank you for your support!