Jeremiah’s Cistern

The name for this poem comes from the story of Jeremiah being thrown into an empty cistern in Jerusalem during the Babylonian siege. You can read the story here in Jeremiah 38.

Jeremiah’s Cistern

How long, O Lord? How long?

The mire and stagnant decay ooze slowly around me, drying, stiffening

Congealing into a cake’d mass of putrescent filth

My arms, once wielding weapons of valour,

Once vanquishing and defending;

Now lock’d beside me, lay dormant, lame

Cocooned in this muck-filled, thorny pit.

My feet, once swift and steady,

Agile and able to carry the heralded message of your return;

Now suck’d beneath me, tapped and trench’d

As fast as the eldest trees’ bulwark roots.

The fog, as it rises here, scrapes at my eyes

And washes my brain with a dullness of thought.

Yet still I remain most keenly aware:

The memories of light; of fight; of action and charge

Compel me to struggle and long to be wrenched

From this sinking, oozing, stifling mass

That surrounds me; suffocates me; immobilises and demoralises me.

How long, O Lord? How long?

Free me from this pit.

Lift me out & let me run.

Let me run & let me fight.

Let me live to proclaim the coming Kingdom.

Wash off this filth so I can reflect You.

Come. Rescue. Cleanse. Renew. Activate. Send.

Come.

Jeremiah’s own response to “seasons” of life like this can be found in Lamentations 3:

For men are not cast off
       by the Lord forever.

Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
       so great is his unfailing love.

For he does not willingly bring affliction
       or grief to the children of men.

(Lam 3:31-33, NIV)

Thank God for hope. : )