Emotions

Emotions are a tempest

Waking and sleeping in the belly of your soul.

Emotions are vital signs of a heart that is alive

Speaking the colors of the universe inside,

Breathing the fragrance of the garden that therein hides.

Sweetness of joy and bitterness of pain!

Emotions sing of desire burning, resounding within –

Lyrical poetry,

Dropping to alight once more,

Plunging, diminishing, swinging upwards again in swelling melody.

Emotions are the song of that love we're looking for.

Written December 17, 2012

By Samantha Lindholm

Invited

Invited into deeper waters –

I wade past mires and griefs.

Invited into deeper waters –

Past the stagnant places and into the sea.

Will I give to You that most precious thing –

Heart of my heart, the music in my blood?

Will I give to You that most precious thing –

The complete abandonment of trust?

Invited into deeper waters where You are wading –

Where You are waiting,

Hands outstretched,

Nail-scars as vivid as fire.

“Set me as a seal upon your heart,

As a seal upon your arm –

For love is strong as death,

Jealousy is fierce as the grave.

Its flashes are flashes of fire,

The very flame of the Lord.”

By Samantha Lindholm

Written November 15, 2012

Song of Solomon 8:6

Untitled

This month is a moment, a whisper in time.
This month is our moment -
Between You and I.

I flip back through the pages of my own life's book.
I see the images as I saw them before -
Shadows lurking in yesterday, still as broad and terrifying sometimes
As if they still hovered over me.
So I huddle here in the worries of yesterday -
Swimming, drowning in memory.

But wait -
You turn the page.
Those chapters are behind us.
I read on and find between the lines that You've been working all the time.
Even now - here in my poem - You're writing the real story.
You take all things and mould them into glory.

You've given me this moment, filled me with this breath
And it's beautiful.
It's holy.

You leaf forward onto chapters yet unnamed -
Undisclosed to me are the contents of a heightening love story.
I feel the upward thrust - it's all coming to a climax -
A weight of glory with which the old shadows cannot compare.
I see Eden, and I know You'll take me there.

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Written By Samantha Lindholm
October 26, 2012

Really autobiographical, stream-of-conciousness feeling poem. Just had to get the thoughts out into some artistic form.

He is good.

In Your Hand

Writer of such a vast plan,
You still hold me in Your hand.
The strokes of Your pen are broad,
Your lines are clean.
The nations walk by Your brightness,
Hearts made to beat with the rhythm of Your uprightness.
God Exalted, Sovereignty Transcendent,
Kindness Ever Victorious -
You've written such an immense and unfathomable plan,
And still You're holding me in Your hand.

Written by Samantha Lindholm
September 16, 2012

Holiness and Friendship

I am not just a brain.

I am heart and flesh.

I am not just a frame.

I was made for holiness.

Holiness is transcendence,

The freedom of truly being –

More than just breathing,

More than just heart-beating.

I am not alone.

I was made for fellowship.

I am not my own.

I am Your companionship.

Find in me a friend – in a love that will never end.

Written by Samantha Lindholm

August 21, 2012

The Heart is Like a Looking Glass

The heart is like a looking glass

With all the questions that it asks.

The heart, it seeks and longs to find

More than normal, an upward climb;

To lay hold of the heights, the depths –

The breadth of the Divine.

By Samantha Lindholm

Written August 8th, 2012

The Fissure

I recently read a portion of a book called "Foolishness to the Greeks" which evaluates what it would take for a truly missionary encounter between Western society and the Gospel. Basically, the writer talks about some really interesting stuff concerning how the Gospel is always shaped in our understanding by the culture we live in. This occurs even in the context of Western culture - or that culture which is called "modern" - such that citizens are able to live alongside so much material about the Gospel without ever really being impacted by it. I don't know if what I'm about to share will make much sense to anyone who has read the book, but I found this in my files from May 21, 2012 and wanted to share.

May 21, 2012 – The Fissure

I dare say that in Western Christianity the fissure between public and private life and between fact and value runs so deep that we have actually divorced the aspect of our emotions and relationship with God from what we see to be our “function” and “role” in church community or our mission-calling. In this it can easily be understood why Christians so desperately pursue outreach continuously while never stopping to develop a relationship with God: we were raised in a culture that valued our productivity first and all other relationships were auxiliary to our “primary function” in our work spheres. This problem touches every age group, from the young student of the public education system that learned to relate as an ID number in the midst of the overall student body (who was ranked by grades, averages, and an overall mathematically calculated GPA), to the adult who climbs a career ladder. Their value is on their resume and in their salary, not in them as an individual.

No wonder the kingdom of God is such a conundrum to us! We believe it entirely natural to separate between fact and value, between dream and have-to, between public and private life – and we think that God is altogether like us! Nevertheless, when we meet with God, we encounter Someone who wanted us first. He never wanted us because we had some productivity value to add to His kingdom, but because each of us were uniquely designed to relate to Him in a deep and intimate way. The work that we do, we do as a labor of love. Although in our society little value is placed on the work of the house mom, the work that she does she does from a deep well of love for her children. She doesn’t expect a promotion or a paycheck. She does not define herself by her resume – in fact, she may not even have one. She is simply satisfied in giving and receiving love. In the same way, our work for the kingdom is not work for the kingdom incorporated. It is a labor of love, done out of the intention to reciprocate a love that God has already shown to us. When we’re connected with this we will not find His commands burdensome. We will not weary in well-doing because it’s from and for love – not for another star on a resume or another grade on a report card.