Weary and confused, clean and yet stained,
Driven by hunger and filled with great pain.
Lonely as darkness with trust just a trace,
All of this comes from the eyes on your face.
But a tiny light it comes forth that helps you to cope,
It sustains through your solitude, its God’s ray of hope.
Fragile yet strong, it will not be broken,
It clings to God’s Word both written and spoken.
Its scant can’t be weighed on the scales of the mind,
But it’s found in the heart and from there it does shine.
The tiny light will grow brighter as you climb slippery slope,
It’s your brother when there’s no other, its God’s ray of hope.
The world it is fleeting, it’s all a dead end,
All brothers seem cheating, you lack for a friend.
But there is a friend, who’s closer than a brother,
Whose Love is much greater than your dad or your mother.
This tiny light from your slumber has woke,
The world cannot extinguish your ray of God’s hope.
It’s growing yet bigger this gift from above,
Borne on the wings of God’s perfect Love.
One day we’ll exchange it for what God holds for us,
But for now, it upholds us as in His Love we do trust.
A lighthouse, a beacon, a fire we stoke,
It endures as do we, God’s great ray of hope.
Tertius
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith,
We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace
in which we now stand.
And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings,
because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
perseverance, character; and character, hope.
And hope does not put us to shame,
because God’s love has been poured out
into our hearts through the Holy Spirit,
who has been given to us.
Romans 5:1-5
A note about “Gods Ray of Hope”: During my jail ministry I had come for a scheduled visit with a group of men from the max section (minimum, medium and max referred to the crime they were charged with) and upon my arrival I learned they were on lockdown which means everyone is locked in their cell until further notice. My mentor, Mother Teresa (a name given to her by one of the inmates and which I love and call her that myself from time to time) asked one of the staff members if I could meet with someone in solitary confinement who had requested to speak with a preacher. Although I’m not a preacher I thought I would do in a rush. This man had spent about 5 months in the hole (solitary confinement) and although he clearly had countenance unfazed and even realized that his incarceration was a good thing and had probably saved his life, I could see the burden of his ordeal written on his face. We talked for over an hour and when I was notified, that our time grew short, I knew I might never see him again, so I began speaking about Gods sublime Love. Before we were done, I saw something in his eyes I hadn’t seen before, Hope. Time is short; who may you give it to?