A few painful questions leaked out of my lost and wandering heart 15 years ago. "Why did you create me?" and "What's my silver bullet--the one thing I can do really well for you?" Beyond the joys and challenges of being a good husband and father, this poem, a simple and heartfelt reflection of my heart's most enduring desires, is his answer to the ever-present question of my calling. My life is clearly a work in progress, so I continue to hold the answer loosely in my hands, testing and adapting it as the Father helps make me more aware of how he has made me... and how he is making me.
Wake up! This is your jailbreak!
I have the key to free your locks
and a sword that smashes anything
that would put you back in stocks
Let's leave now, but stay beside me.
This light will show the way.
It will pierce the deepest darkness
and every captor keep at bay.
Dear brother, I see you doubting.
You’ve been told you’re on your own.
Though you’ve thought yourself an orphan
you have never been alone.
And now you fear more disappointment,
forbidding hope to rise.
But if you kill this hope inside your heart,
all life inside you dies.
The Father’s heart’s been with you,
His eyes on you all along,
aching for this reunion,
but your heart has been a stone
Before the dawn He planned your rescue
and now the time is finally right
so He dispatched me into darkness
to bring you back into the light
Your disbelief I understand,
but you’ve forgotten your own name.
Papa wants you home again.
You’ve an inheritance to claim.
So let’s set our course like pilgrims
Papa will show the Way.
He waits now to embrace you.
There’s no good reason here to stay.
Your story is finally turning,
your real life has just begun.
A feast awaits. The beer is cold.
Your captivity is done.
So let iron bars and gates of bronze,
be crushed time and again
because the hidden gold, the army bold
is the ransomed hearts of men
Send me to free more rebels.
Then, Father, raise them, one-by-one
like this orphan who knew not his name
but you now call “Beloved Son”.
-"Jailbreak" Jay
Papa, thank you for the men who have asked me the right questions, spoken words of counsel to me, and fathered me in the unfathered places, in particular Matt and Brit.
-Son
Featured image created by Sam Ingram (Connect4Hero.deviantart.com)