In Light of Eternity

I don’t remember what led to today’s poem. I’m sure I was crushing on someone, but the “coworkers and friends” line made me wonder if I had some FOMO going on as well—people gathering without me for whatever reason. That’s actually the line that struck me and made me pick this poem for sharing today—the simple, lost pleasure of just hanging out with people.

This whole poem is an early reflection of themes I’ve been wrestling with for a while. We’re told to “find our satisfaction in Jesus,” but nobody ever talks about the struggle to find out what that means. As someone who is perpetually single, the feeling of being deprived can feel so real sometimes. It’s so easy to lose sight of the greater joys. Even now I don’t know if I’m content because I’ve matured in that satisfaction or if it’s simply that I’m mercifully crush-free at the moment.

Loss is hard. It really is, even when it’s the loss of something intangible or something you never had in the first place. But the pain—the lost year due to COVID, the pain of singleness, whatever—is so short in light of eternity.

In Light of Eternity

Originally written July 2013

My shallow heart is aching once again
For simple pleasures oft denied to me—
A day of fun with coworkers and friends;
A lover, with a ring, down on one knee.
Though these things all, I know, will pass away,
Yet my heart’s sick with yearning and desire.
I know I wait for better things one day—
Right now, I melt in this refining fire.
Remind me, Lord, of joys You’ve set before—
That sixty years is not too long to wait
That seeking you is treasure worth far more
Than any pleasure I have had to date.
Remind me Heaven’s of far greater worth
Than any joy I may find here on Earth.

Photo by Daniele Levis Pelusi on Unsplash