Thursday, August 6, 2009

Places in the Heart

"There are places in the heart that do not yet exist;
  suffering has to enter in for them to come to be".
[Leon Bloy]

God in heaven
      Watching you and me
God in heaven
      Is sad as he can be.
                ~
The hurt we feel
      Does pierce His heart
But the hurt we feel
      Is just a part
Of the hurt inside His heart.
               ~
God feels our pain
      And others' too
It may be feeling hurt
      Is all He gets to do.
              ~
The world he made
      Has gone astray
So sad he feels
      To see what people do and say.
              ~
So sad is He
      That He's depressed
That He's worn out
      And sad as death.
              ~
Perhaps our God
      Is like us too
That when He's sad
      And feeling blue,
He cannot even tie his shoe.
              ~
Perhaps He lies
      In bed all day
And can't make hay
      Or even play.
              ~
Perhaps these hurts
      He feels
Are such,
      He can't do much.
             ~
He can't get up,
      Get dressed, get food
And all He does
      Is lie in bed - and brood.
             ~
The worries that A God can have
So heavy, heavy do they weigh
      That He's depressed,
      That He's inert
For all the long of a Godly day.
             ~
He may need help
      But cannot call
Who's thought that
      God needs help at all?
             ~
It makes me very sad to think
      That God's so hurt and lonely
      (And no one thinks of this at all)  
That nothing does He get to do,
      But suffer only.
             ~
To suffer for eternity
      In hopes the world will change
And all He gets for this
      Is hopes and prayers and
Curses for the things he doesn't arrange.
             ~
I don't think I would like to be
A God like this - who cries all day 
And sees all pain
      And suffers still
      And still again
And suffers every, every day
And feels our pain in every way.
             ~
It's bad enough
For me to know
That suffering
That has brought you low.
            ~
If I had had to know - What He has seen and felt
I don't think I could bear to know
And feel - and still go on.
            ~
I'd get depressed and cry all day
And feel so sad - in a Holy way
And I'd give up and say:
      "I'm tired of being God this way!"
            ~
I'm tired of knowing all the woes
       And all the hurts and all the pain;
I'm sick to death of suffering.
       Please can't I die?
And not go through all this again?
            ~
But God can't die
He only lives
For all eternity
Alone and sad, a whole world's pain
He bears for you and me.
            ~
I could go on - in the middle of the night
Telling you all about God's plight.
Like I, He cannot sleep
So sad is He, so sad, so deep.
            ~
Imagine being god
      Where day and night
      Without surcease
He watches all our sufferings
      And takes them in His heart
And can do nothing more - That is his part.
            ~
So when you're sad - and He can't help
           At least you're in - His suffering heart.
1-31-94
Written for one who suffered much.
Dedicated to all who suffer without comprehension.


I have learned a little - in my work - of Divine Compassion:
Love for - and with - those who suffer.
This suffering love, in which I have participated,
This compassion, which has enlarged my heart,
I cannot call it "mine" alone.
It teaches me - from whence it comes.