The Three Parts of Me

I've been thinking about balance a lot lately.  Balance is not something I am proficient at.  Part of my problem is that I am a servant by nature, but also find myself with the unenviable quality of being a people-pleaser. I really WANT to help people and serve in whatever way I can.  And since I can't stand the thought of someone being upset with me, I typically say yes when sometimes I should say no.

I am also married to a man who loves me and wants to protect me from over-extending myself.  As a three-fold being, I have been considering my parts, body, soul, and spirit.  I am trying to figure out where I am at, what I'm doing well, and where I need improvement.  Out of those thoughts came this poem:

The Three Parts of Me

 

My spirit soars with faith in God, and reverence for His Word.

I love Him and I hope in Him, and praise for Him is stirred.

I long to be much closer than I feel I am today,

And pray that He will strengthen me to walk His narrow way.

My body seems to fail me as I move through middle age.

I don't think I've mistreated it--that's sometimes hard to gauge.

My senses still connect me to the world outside my skin;

Degeneration and disease have harmed me from within.

My soul (my thoughts and feelings), is the hardest to perceive;

With spirit strong and body weak, what should it believe?

The psalmist must have felt this:  "For my bones, Lord are dismayed!

My soul is in deep anguish. Deliver me I pray!"

I know that God can heal me, and I fully trust in Him.

I know He acts with reason, and never on a whim.

I know He will sustain me and enable me to live.

Pain or not, He's birthed in me a heart to serve and give.

Still, there is a struggle as each decade passes by.

Perhaps I don't believe enough, no matter how I try.

And yet, I know with all my heart that I am in His hands.

He'll give me all the strength I need to hope and trust and stand!

© Liz Kimmel