Wednesday 4th December - Advent Book Club 4

Image Credit: myfriso; untitled; Creative Commons

this is a deep one today;

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-bruised-reed-shall-he-not-break/

A Bruised Reed Shall he not Break

I will accept thy will to do and be,
Thy hatred and intolerance of sin,
Thy will at least to love, that burns within
And thirsteth after Me:
So will I render fruitful, blessing still,
The germs and small beginnings in thy heart,
Because thy will cleaves to the better part.—
Alas, I cannot will.

Dost not thou will, poor soul? Yet I receive
The inner unseen longings of the soul,
I guide them turning towards Me; I control
And charm hearts till they grieve:
If thou desire, it yet shall come to pass,
Though thou but wish indeed to choose My love;
For I have power in earth and heaven above.—
I cannot wish, alas!

What, neither choose nor wish to choose? and yet
I still must strive to win thee and constrain:
For thee I hung upon the cross in pain,
How then can I forget?
If thou as yet dost neither love, nor hate,
Nor choose, nor wish,—resign thyself, be still
Till I infuse love, hatred, longing, will.—
I do not deprecate.

Christina Georgina Rossetti

It's very like a John Donne poem, the way it twists and turns the different meanings of the words; 'will' as in 'inclination, determination to do something' and 'will' as in 'I will do something, or I won't do something'.

Cleave - to stick to something, or to split

Wish - as in magic wands and fairy tales, or as in making a request, which is an old-fashioned use of 'wish'

It seems to be a conversation between God (Father and Son) and someone, anyone who is a wobbly sort of Christian. The first seven lines are God speaking and the last line is the reply.

But the very last line - is that God speaking? Or Wobbly believer speaking? 

That word 'Deprecate' (I had to look it up to be sure I knew what it meant) also has two meanings; (I thought it did, but had to make sure!)

to not approve of something, or say that you do not approve of something:

to say that you think something is of little value or importance: 

Could that be God, Father and Son, saying that He doesn't regard us as being of little value or importance, that he loves us too much to be a fearful and stern God towards us even when we are very wobbly in our faith? We might be as much use as a bruised and broken reed, but He still values us.

 AdventBookClub is raising money for the Trussell Trust at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/adventbookclub2019, and is even in a group on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1220319721395793/?ref=share. We are running from Advent Sunday Dec 1st to Candlemas in January, and using Rachel Mann’s “In the Bleak Midwinter“