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
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: KindlePaperback Inkspiration Books (my bookstore): Paperback Thank you for your support!
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: KindlePaperback Inkspiration Books (my bookstore): Paperback Thank you for your support!
Bravery
There's no one braver to be
in a world increasingly
defined by a litany of achievements
than the way God crafted me.
Our contributions can't be measured
solely in dollars and money signs.
For God's work isn't treasured
by the market of mankind.
Our souls become rich
and our hearts light
when we reject a model of materialism
and follow the path God has for our life.
Though pockets may become fat
if we aspire to be paid in gold,
we'll end up failing to acquire
the dividends paid to the soul.
We fail not only ourselves
but those we rob of our gifts.
Is it worth that sack of gold, dear Judas,
to betray destiny with a kiss?
There's no one braver that I can be
than to live free
of the world's expectations
and seek the life God has willed for me.
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: KindlePaperback Inkspiration Books (my bookstore): Paperback Thank you for your support!
A Life's Purpose - A Poem
Busyness is not success.
Nor is achievement.
Nor accolades
of power, status, or wealth.
Success is measured
by how closely we live out
our life's purpose -
the king who was called to live
as a pauper is poor.
What good is earning the riches of the world
if they cost the betrayal of our heart
each and every day?
You know the voice.
You've heard it speaking
in the depth of your soul,
trying to point you
back to your blueprint,
trying to realign you to your design.
We don't chose our calling;
it chooses us.
Fail to accept it
and you are thrust,
thrown down a path of emptiness
where the shrieks of the soul
become so loud
you must unceasingly engage in activity
to distract yourself from the reality
of your failure.
Before do, you must answer who
you are
or all your doing
is nothing but steps
that lead you farther and farther
away from your true self.
Poem by Justin Farley
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
Alphabet Soup
God's assigned each one of us
a letter of His being -
a unique quality that sets us apart
from each and every human to ever exist.
Though we are not God,
God is a part of us.
Our letter reveals something about Him.
It is why we are all connected.
It is why I am not greater than you.
And why you are not greater than me.
And neither are we greater than our enemy
who seems beyond the realm of redemption.
For we all make up letters in the words of God,
floating in the milk of existence like alphabet soup,
forming words
carrying revelation
digested by the human heart.
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: KindlePaperback Inkspiration Books (my bookstore): Paperback Thank you for your support!
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: KindlePaperback Inkspiration Books (my bookstore): Paperback Thank you for your support!
No Quarter
If I look, I'll find 1000 complaints,
but I've resolved to give no quarter to protest
when I've been so blessed
with gifts raining down from Heaven like manna.
If I find my vision
dull, dark, and gray
it's because I've chosen to stay
blind to how lucky I truly am.
Of course there's darkness.
But there's also an abundance of light
available when we keep our sight
fixed on our graces and gratitude.
Dark cloud, keep on moving.
I'll no longer grant you quarter.
My attitude is back in order -
my storehouse is far too full to harbor complaint.
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: KindlePaperback Inkspiration Books (my bookstore): Paperback Thank you for your support!
