Let not betrayal
Committed or absorbed . . .

Let not discouragement
Imposed or self-induced . . .

Whether pierced, or perpetrator,
Enemies lurk and listen
To seize on our exposure,
Windows left open, doors unlatched.

Protect this heart from forces set against it.
Be careful with whom you align.
In pain and deep discouragement
The howling winds do blow
Pushing you in their direction,
Toward an orphan identity
Lost and alone,
Taunted with self-pity, resentment, or revenge.

That drip, that tap, that bang, boom, bomb!
That tortuous pounding condemnation.
Not clean, not worthy,
Not wanted, not enough,
Not not not not not . . . .

To destroy the tender secret place
The tent of peace in the heart
The house of His abiding.
The well-spring of the Father’s breathing presence.

Be rude! Belligerent! Fierce!
Give no quarter to that poison
That leaks into your hallowed hall.
Draining its hope and consuming its oxygen,
Stealing the breath of its joy.

Don’t you be the one to join forces,
To come in league with the adversary
That rips, and destroys your peace,
That embitters the sweet innocence
Of union with Holy Spirit.

Have you betrayed? Now what?
Has your heart been ravaged and shredded? Now what?

How painful, how humiliating, how self-abhorrent,
To wound, to tear, to perpetrate an evil
On someone you so dearly love.
How irreparable? How utterly unrecoverable?

NOT SO! Be gone from here!
I yield no space to words of shame, despair, hopelessness.
Be gone you gall of bitterness.
You seeping sludge of resentment.

O the draw, the seduction,
the subtle and easy slide
That defines your worth and your meaning
By the wounds that cut your core,
By how dismissed and disregarded you must feel.
Rehearse not thy shame
The loathing, the remorse,
Stacking high the guilt-veined stones
Out on the doorstep of forgiveness.
Jamming access to your peace, your home,
Mere inches away.

Call not the blood-washed deed even a thing at all.

Leave weeping on the step.
No slobbering by the alter of your pride.

You are inside. Remember?
Your Friend has washed your robe.
He’s placed now on your shoulders
That robe of brilliant colors.
He’s kissed your neck.
With tears of love . . .
He just doesn’t stop kissing you.
Reach out now. Unlock.
Open and let yourself in.

Can I get past, O God? Can I go on?
Rail now! Defy!

Furiously drag out from that sewer,
That satanic swamp.
Burn those damned clothes!
Stand in the shower.
The cleansing, sparkling Word of Life.
The blazing new morning of radiant hope.

Yield no liar’s entry to the Celestial Citadel -
The garden in your heart.
The tender, vulnerable, original
Of all your hopes for purity.
For exhilarating union with kindred souls
In the Father’s gladdening presence.

Recall the constant company Jesus keeps with you
In defending your inner sanctuary
Where you behold each other happily,
Longingly,
In deepest peace.
You have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the Righteous -
The Maker New, of all things.
Unite with Him, and with Him fight
To guard and strengthen your heart.
For from it gush the glories, goods and refreshments,
The torrents and glistening of endless life.

O tender sprout all torn, frayed and bruised,
Call Him in faith by His names and enter into them:
‘Impenetrable Shield,’ ‘Strong Tower of Defense.’
Spoken before the face of the One who calls
That which is not, as though it were.
He - the ‘Triumphant Warrior who Saves.’
Who abides in the very heart and mind under siege -
‘The Mighty Shield’ within.

Now ascribe to your Loving One as
‘Your Exceeding Great Reward.’
Ask Him, ’Let Your goodness pass before me.’
‘Let all Your goodness always be passing within me.’

Surely my beloved friend, He will not refuse you.
Indeed, He is flowing now, inside you
As the river of living water.
Fall into it.
Be upheld.
Be carried.