The kindle version of my chapbook, “A Voice in the Wilderness”, is currently free on Amazon through Sunday. I would truly appreciate you leaving a rating and/or review 😊 You can find it at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08JHC5Z8N/⠀
Conversion A Poem About the Love and Grace of God I began divided. Quite selfish with a heart hungry for evil yet filled with a deep longing brewing below the surface that never seemed fulfilled by anything other than you. So what was I to do - in love with myself and my selfish desires but realizing more each day my need for you? I opened my ears to your voice but kept my heart safely distant. You told me to follow you. And I obeyed... at a snail's pace, slowly inching my way towards your grace. The closer I came the louder my name reverberated from your lips. Though the louder too were my selfish longings. Lust ran high in the dry, dusty desert of restraint and tried to pull me back into the slavery of gratification. I gave in time and time again but refused to allow my sin to convince me to hide in shame from you. For at the core of my being, I knew you held something true - an answer to a question about the essence of life itself that couldn't be answered along any other path but yours. So I continued hauling my heavy shell behind me and sluggishly crawled onward, but the way forward didn't get any easier. I only found myself more divided, fragmented into forces fighting within myself. My head became a bed for commotion, tossing me to and fro like the waves of the ocean. The inner struggle only made me more aware of the seriousness of my situation: I had a head full of God and a heart unwavering it its insistence upon serving itself. It was daunting, haunting me in its clutches and causing me to lose sleep like a nightmare stuck on repeat, waking me up in the night to the harsh realities of life. How was I to serve two masters and attend to both of their matters? My ego wasn't lulled to sleep nor cowered to the call for its destruction. But raged and rattled the cage your spirit had created for it. I trusted that your grace was vaster than all the stars shinning forth forgiveness in the dark to the farthest corners of the universe; surely my sin was no match for your goodness. I resolved to stop worrying so much about "do nots" that I never seemed capable of obeying and to focus on following through on the "dos" I was perfectly capable of undertaking. And there your spirit freed a seemingly unsavable prisoner from the bondage of self and turned me towards the Divine. For you kept me so busy doing your will that I forgot about mine. 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. The ebook is free on Amazon, today only (2/28/21)
Amazon: Kindle Paperback
Inkspiration Books (my bookstore): Paperback
Thank you for your support!
Fasting in the Desert Strip yourself naked, unclothed of selfish desire. For it requires fuel to burn just as a raging fire. If all thoughts revolve around me and mine, how am I to hear the voice of God, how am I to feel the presence of the Divine? It's by starving addictions that we discover the depth of their roots. Sometimes we must endure pain and misery to prepare our hearts for grander pursuits. Contentment begins when we step into Silence's abode. Here we find all we need and her blessings are bestowed. For comfort comes not from out there but from within and fasting in the desert is where the search for God begins. Justin Farley
Great Expectations Joy can seize us in the lowliest of places, perhaps even easier than in the loftiest ones. Humble eyes are open wider than those of great expectation, those muted of exultation and closed to the blessings that abound in the ordinary - it's commonness makes it no less miraculous. It's easy to see the glory of God stepping out of the darkness of a cave. Far harder blind, perched upon an idolatrous mountaintop of our own making. Great expectations cannot bring joy for they are contingent on the false hope that joy can be gained from obtaining anything of worldly worth. Happiness is fleeting; joy remains though the seasons change - in both the harsh, winter cold and the warm, summer sun. A joyful heart shoots for the stars but is content if the Universe wills for it to remain on Earth. 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!
Planting These seeds I sow, I know not whether they'll grow or remain dormant without ever seeing the light of day. Whether they'll wither and die or if they'll take root and thrive matters little; I am a planter - I leave the harvesting to You. I keep my heart open to the wind on whose instructions I depend to know which grounds You ordain for the work of my hands. These seeds I sow - I know not whether they'll grow. But the crop is Yours to use whether large or small. Justin Farley
Recently, I’ve seen major spiritual growth and recovery in multiple “problem areas” of my life that I’ve tried time and time again to change for years. I haven’t tried harder – in fact I’ve probably never tried less. I have simply changed the way I pray for aid and guidance.
My prayers would often begin, “Lord, help me”, “Grant me the strength to”, or “God may I start”. I would pray often and fervently. And yet, I would fail over and over again. My motivation was able to push me through a few failures, but eventually, it left me in one of two camps: either I was filled with shame, regret, and was convinced I was a terrible person, or I would direct my frustration at God for setting up a world in which the wrong choices are so easy and the right ones are so hard (and on top of that He didn’t seem to be hearing my prayers).
It became hard to continue and was pushing me farther away from God, unsure of Him and myself. My prayer life ceased to exist. What good is prayer if all it leaves you feeling is a. shameful, b. mad at God, or c. doubting His existence at all? And so I sat at the crossroads, unable to move towards atheism but beginning to grow weary following God and tired of trying.
It wasn’t until I took a good look at my requests for aid that things began to change. Who was the main doer is all of my prayers? Me. I. Myself. My conversations with God came from the assumption that I’m doing the work and getting close to success, but I just need a little extra push to get myself up the hill. That’s not a savior. That’s just a friend you’d ask, “Hey buddy, you mind giving me a hand over here real quick?”
My breakthrough happened when I realized I am not truly in control of my transformation. The only part of the transformation I have any control over is my submission to God’s will. It was really in looking at Step 2 of Alcoholics Anonymous that inspired me. It states, “[We] Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” And that’s what we are – insane in our sin. God can restore us to sanity but not by our own doing. It is God that does the doing within us.
Humility is the cornerstone of the Christian life and of the Cross itself. It is only in admitting that we don’t know the way that we find it. God doesn’t desire to be just someone who gives you a little push when you need it but a savior who rescues you from the pit of despair. Not because He needs to be the hero but because He wants to strip us of the delusion that we were making any progress up that hill to begin with. It is only by fully submitting to God that we become our true selves that He created us to be, wonderfully made in His image.
My prayers are now empty, void of my own desires. I attempt to only consent to the Spirit dwelling within me. Though empty, they are fuller than ever because I have come to believe that it is God alone who can restore me. I am not in control. It is not God who gets in the way of my healing, but I who gets in His way. My prayers are still far from perfect, but God is restoring me to sanity.
Work less and trust more. Fully submit to God and allow Him to push you all the way up the hill, resting in His love. It is amazing to see that the more helpless we realize we are, the more help we receive. I think as Christians we often equate “carrying your cross” with grunting through labor and bearing the burden. But the Cross had nothing to do with what Christ did but what he allowed to be done. He could have saved himself. Instead, he humbled himself and fully submitted to the will of the Father. Let us all submit to the Father’s will and let His will be done rather than our own.
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!
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.
Inkspiration Books (my bookstore): Paperback
Thank you for your support!
Build Within Me A Foundation of Thanksgiving – A Poem of Praise to God
May your rays of righteousness
pierce through the clouds and shadows of my heart.
May my mind give way to your fruit –
take up your shears and prune these vines that ensnare me.
Give thanks, give praise to the tree of life,
whose branches stretch out into infinity’s depths.
Give thanks, give praise to the tree of life,
whose leaves cover and provide shelter from worldly strife.
May wisdom flow like a river, filling my well –
knowledge of you soothing my parched lips and restoring my soul.
May I not walk by the power of my own two feet,
but make the journey through life on my knees, yielding to your majesty.
If I find nothing to be grateful for, nothing to praise you for,
surely my eyes are closed like curtains to the light of morning.
If my ears do not hear your name praised throughout the forest,
surely I am deaf to the songs and melodies of mother nature.
Build within me a foundation of thanksgiving –
a cornerstone on which my heart and soul rests.
Build within me an unquenchable thirst to praise your name,
never ceasing to be marveled by the brilliance of your glory.
Still the river of desire that flows through the heart of man,
unceasingly paddling down torrential waters, never satisfied, never able to rest.
Still the winds of lust, of jealous breezes,
our noses consistently sniffing for scents trying to sense what we don’t have.
Let our hearts not beat for what we’re missing,
but become firmly grounded in the grace which we already have.
Let our hearts not beat for foolish wishes,
but boil over with thanksgiving for your endless bounty and be glad.
-Poem Written by Justin Farley
Everyday Miracles – A Poem About Finding God in Ordinary Things
The clamor of your wisdom claps
like a thousand hands in unison throughout the forest,
calling from every treetop,
and whispering within every breath the north wind blows.
Your wisdom can be found in the simplicity of a dew drop
and within the caw of a congregation of crows.
You are an invisible hand, always laboring,
opening and closing doors as you see fit –
not always on my time frame,
not always giving me access to the rooms I wish,
but often times I find ignorance is bliss.
For the paths I most yearn to walk down
you wall off, knowing they lead to my demise.
You are the wise King,
always leading, but serving unceasingly.
With each new day you bring,
I am astonished at your beauty –
as long as I make the time to open my eyes,
as long as my awareness is focused on you
and turned away from the desires of my mind.
Your miracles come in small packages,
constantly sent, but rarely opened.
I look for you in grandiose experiences,
but you keep gently tugging at my sleeve,
urging me to put on my leather gloves
and dig for you in the dirt of the garden.
If I’m not careful,
I can become oblivious to the everyday mystery –
the beauty of a daffodil,
the way sunlight rests upon my windowsill,
the spirit that speaks when my mind gets still,
and the non-coincidental meetings of strangers,
sharing the exact conversations I need to hear.
Open my eyes when they are blind to your majesty,
so that I may witness your glory
in every root, rock, river, and ravine.
May I read the love letters you’ve written
upon every stump I pass in the forest,
every deer that crosses my path,
and every squirrel that leaps from limb to limb.
May I marvel at your everyday miracles
and find your fingerprints upon every piece of evidence
in this case called life.
-Poem Written by Justin Farley
photo credit: Ontelaunee Creek Tributary (1) via photopin (license)
