these are the salt water taffy days
like the arms of a machine
that try to cut me in half
but really just stretch me
to make me a little softer
a little sweeter
the machine's been churning for days now
I'm getting a little dizzy
worn down by the ins and outs
rounds and rounds like clockwork
in a sticky cycled cage of chrome and pink
the zigging is pulling down my smile
and the zagging is tugging my eyes upward
toward the writer of the recipe
You smile and whisper
"Hang on"
because in the middle of all this
dizzying, stretching, straining
you're making me delicious.
"Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape." Charles Dickens
"The closeness to God, the similarity to God, the conformity to God, not just the feeling of being close to God but the ontological real closeness to God, the God-likeness of the soul, emerges from suffering with remarkable efficiency."
Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
James 1: 2-4
"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out." Romans 12:1-2 (MSG)
