A Prayer Only in you do I find peace, my Redeemer. So many questions drown my reason in screams of agony, as the protestations of a screeching wife drowns the goodwill of the most gracious of husbands. I have days where the evidence of you is something my heart doubts and my body screams against. I have nights where you flee from my mind and it seems that you leave me for the cruelest of predators. My bowels gnaw at the screams of my soul -- the two, the pair -- the predator and the scavenger -- the wolf and the coyote. But even when my heart disbelieves and my mind drowns, I will proclaim with my mouth and declare with my hands the Truth of your word. I will suffer, as Sin with inscestuous abominations gnawing at her bowels -- in anticipation of the merest glimpses of rest and peace in your presence. This I declare, Accuser, tormenter of my soul. Do the worst you can inflict upon me. Do you truly think that my Redeemer will not stand against you? And, if it is God's will to allow my suffering, do you not remember that you only have jurisdiction for twenty, forty, eighty years more? I am the Lord's, and I shall serve his will and name until eternity ends. Any power I may have given you, I renounce. Let me tell you who you are, Satan. You, you are the snake beneath my heel. You, and your lackeys who are less than the dirt beneath my smallest toe -- Sickness, #depression, Distraction, Fear, and Confusion. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear you, snake. My Lord Shepherd will crush you with rod and staff at my merest request. You are doomed to eternity in the fire, Filth. Lord, when I am confident, be with me. Lord, when I doubt, rescue me from the clutching chaos of confusion-- Lord, when I fear, comfort me. Only in you have I ever found strength. Be my peace in plenty and pain! This I declare. This I pray. This I sing, my Lord Almighty. Amen. #faith #pain #prose#poem #whoeversaidthiswaseasy #didyoumissme?