General (Vol. 2)

How Do You Know?

  1. How do you know when God has come near?
    It's not just a church or the things on a wall
    But of quietly opening your whole self to hear,
    Like the silence you need to hear a leaf fall.
  2. How do you know when God enters your heart?
    It's not just a glow like a kiss or a prize
    But a sense that the warmth within will overflow
    Even though you are bigger than you realise.
  3. How do you know when God wants you to act?
    It's not just the gifts that you like to employ
    Nor the gentle, constructive deployment of tact
    But the sharpest conjunction of sorrow and joy.
  4. The sorrow of Jesus in His dying breath
    and the joy that He rose from the dead for our sake
    And the sorrow we feel in betraying that death
    By deliberately repeating a previous mistake.