The Perfect Center – A Sestina
In Bible Study Fellowship we are studying the Life of Moses. One of the great truths about God that we are learning in Leviticus and Numbers is that God desires to be at the center of our lives, and that when He is at the center He provides for His people. I decided that I wanted to write a sestina about God as the perfect center of my life. Unlike the first sestina I wrote, this one is patterned after the original sestina so that each stanza has lines of 8, 11, 11, 11, 11, and 11 syllables, rather than each line being in iambic pentameter (not that I was successful with achieving iambic pentameter in my first one).
The Perfect Center
You desire to be my center
O God, You alone are worthy of my trust
Yet the deceit of this world plunders my faith
Where would I be without your immense mercy
Show me, Lord, clear direction I might follow
Guide me in Your perfect ways that I obey
Forgive me when I don’t obey
Bring me back, Lord, to You my perfect center
Never let me stray as Your will I follow
O Lord, You are the only one I can trust
Because of Your great compassion and mercy
I will forever believe, cling to my faith
I marvel at the strength of faith
That some days makes it effortless to obey
Resting in the bosom of Your great mercy
Focused on the cross, Your Son my center
Considering Your perfect decrees, I trust
With reckless abandon Your will I follow
Headstrong, my own will I follow
I marvel at the fragility of faith
Prone to trust in worthless things I cannot trust
On my own it’s too difficult to obey
Worldly possessions, Lord, become my center
I’m lost, alone without Your perfect mercy
I am thankful for Your mercy
Leading me back to the One I must follow
O Lord, You deserve to be my soul’s center
I pray this day I will attain perfect faith
I pray someday I’ll learn to always obey
You have proven, Lord, You are worthy of trust
Correct me when I fail to trust
When I do wrong, but then repent, have mercy
Grant me Your Holy Spirit, then I’ll obey
Fill me with Your perfect grace, then I’ll follow
Remind me You are faithful, then I’ll have faith
Make me desire to keep You as my center
When I follow I learn to trust
Growing faith feeds on Your mercy
You, the Center, help me obey
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Learning to trust is the key to so much in life, and can be so hard to do. You did a great job with the form.
I don’t have exposure to Psalm or hymns so I was unable to identify unlike others. But this had a great depth!
“O God, You alone are worthy of my trust
Yet the deceit of this world plunders my faith”
So true.
I admire the courage of anyone who tackles a sestina.
Definitely a psalm. The Sestina with its sense of repetition works well for this..
So true that all animals who have GOD at peace are
centered solid in balance of mind and body
flow.. as all things balanced.. peace does flow..:)
What a wonderful meditation that could be used for Lent.
I do agree that sometimes the deceit of today plunders one’s faith. But He always leads us back!. We definitely do need to learn to trust, and our trust is always rewarded.
i too got the feeling of a psalm – I have always felt that writing in that spirit ties prayer and poetry.
I do love form poetry for creating a prayer-like feeling in a poem. Peace, Linda
it can be a meditation of sorts… I often think prayer is shorted when it comes to meditation.
This reads like a Psalm, Linda! Thank you for always encouraging us in Christ. When I don’t keep Him as my center, I get off balance. God bless you!