By Andrew R. Duckworth
“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
2 Peter 3:9 NIV
Patience is not a sharpened tool
In my toolbox,
Yet there is an empty holder
For such an instrument.
I have often raged against Him,
Waited and waited and raged
In my impatience.
But my impatience was a bolder
I tripped over when my eyes
Were gazing on something else.
Remove the plank.
I was blinded by my own reasoning,
Placing the fault on the One
Who is faultless.
My errors are my own.
They were not guided
By some other hand.
It is not I who wait.
It is He who waits on me-
To follow His example,
To follow the One who came,
The One who saved a filthy wretch
So undeserving of a prize
I could not win.
I am different than yesterday.
My old ways have died
Yet I still dwell on old days,
Often unable to find
The forgiveness for self.
Yet, if God has forgiven,
Why should I dwell?
God waits for us.
He is so rich in mercy
For a fallen thing
So undeserving
Of the love and comfort
I so often fail to fully realize.
Poetry of Andrew Ryan Duckworth 