In May 1994, God inspired the only poem I have ever written.
I was 45 years old, still practicing law, and had been an actively practicing Christian for only two years. I walked into the lobby of 1st Broad Street UMC one day and found myself thinking, “I would really like to work here.”
The thought of leaving law and going into fulltime Christian ministry seemed so appealing. I could spend my days among people who loved Jesus, help lead prayer and mission teams, do Christian dramas with my beloved wife Christie, and even preach from time to time.
I shared my thoughts with Christie and then with my dear friend and law partner, the late Ed Norris. Both told me the same thing. “Doug, you can go places a minister can’t go.” They burst my bubble!
While in prayer that evening, the Lord revealed I wanted to be in ministry for the wrong reasons. I was looking to live on the mountain top. (Matthew 17:4) God sends His ministers into the valley. (John 20:21, 21:15-22) I was asking God to help me live my dreams. God wanted me to live His dream.
I repented. Like Psalm 51 in the aftermath of David’s sin with Bathsheba, this poem burst out of me:
Moon in the Darkness
My Father, please make me a moon in the darkness
reflecting the light of Your Son;
and leave me no dark side,
no half-moon or half-truth,
that hampers Your will being done.
Let my service, through Your grace,
shift the tide of men’s lives
and help draw them closer to You,
where Your love and Your light
will eclipse all their fears
and transform who they are, what they do.
My Father, please make me a star in Your heavens,
just one in a host of small sons;
with Your daughters, creating a great constellation
that sings of the victory won!
Let our lights be a guide
when men sail on Your sea
In the dark ‘fore the morning’s red sky.
Let them find the Safe Harbor
Who is marked by the cross,
and be saved from the storm ‘ere they die.
My Father, please make me a part of the Body,
a part of the Christ now on earth –
an Aaron who helps others hold up Your prayer staff,
a clown who distributes Your mirth;
a carpenter restoring homes for the poor,
a fundraiser collecting alms;
a disciple in service to people in need
of a love that left holes in His palms.
My Father, please make me Your lover forever,
more intimate each wondrous day;
sharing the truth of Your Word and Your works,
sharing the price that Christ pays;
sharing Your love with all people around me
that they might be Your lovers, too;
sharing my Jesus, my Father, my All
in a new world where all worship You!
My Father, please make me an Adam of love
who would never partake of that tree,
and make my wife Eve, who,
not tricked by the serpent,
abides in Your garden with me;
where we tend to Your creatures
and nurture Your plants,
and give birth by becoming one flesh.
The children are Yours!
It’s a marriage of three –
love of God, man, and woman that mesh.
My Father, please make me a flower… a songbird…
a beaver… a tiger… a tree…
for reflecting Your beauty,
for singing Your praise,
for work, war or waiting on Thee.
I give You my life,
You give my life back,
perfect freedom for those who obey.
Use me! I thirst
for the rightness, the truth
that comes when I am what You say.
My Father, please make me whatever You will,
I ask it with all of my heart!
Let me move toward the oneness
that Christ prayed we’d have
where no one can tell us apart.
Let me speak of Your wonder
to all that You love,
of a vastness far more than I know –
power bound by no rules
but Your wisdom and grace,
our faithlessness, our only foe.
My Father, please make me a moon in the darkness!
Please make me a star in Your sky!
Please make me the salt of Your world that preserves!
Please make me a love that won’t die!
Please make me Your temple!
Please make me Your priest!
Please make me a man who will pray
every night, every day, for the rest of my life,
for those who don’t choose to obey.
My Father!
My Jesus!
My Spirit!
My Life!
Please make me,
please make me, I pray,
to become all the things
I can be that will please You
on this and each following day.
Amen
Three months later, God called me into fulltime ministry. Now my heart was right. And the last thirty years have been wonderful.
God bless you and God bless our community.