Look Toward The Stars

     I was in a training class 8 years ago, and there was a young woman who was crying and crying about her awful life and how hopeless it all was.  I sat there trying not to listen and this poem just fell out of me, I gave her a copy of it and she said it was an answer to her prayers. I find it interesting that at times I feel this way, then I remember this poem and I feel better.  

The room is dark and wet. The bars a rusty gleam.

The chains are thick and heavy. The guard is cruel and mean.

I look out to the stars, barred windows do I see

With tear streaked cheeks and glossy eyes I look at the guard, it’s me.

Some crusty bread with mold upon, some water that is stale

I hide myself in the corner of my little jail

The stars they shine, I love that sight but I can’t see them clear

I'd have to stand and drag my chains so thick all the way from here

My guard he laughs and so I sit and cry upon my knees

I bow my head humbly and cry to the Lord “Oh please”

He came to me, not in power, but tiny little words

“My dear your chains are broken, you're as free as  birds

I looked at those chains, my bars, my guard, real as steel to be seen

And the thought occurred so clear, all of this was made by me

Slow I stand and mightily, I pull at all my chains

And one by one they broke off with my mighty strains

Tired and breathless and sore, but I felt alive

I tore upon my bars, my jailer starts to cry

The bars are all a crumble my jailers overthrown

The hallways are un-trodden, but I need to go

The stars they are awaiting and I want to see them so

The Lord will give me all the strength and teach me where to go

So if your life is in a rut and prison so it seems

With worry stress or loneliness and the shattering of dreams

The Lord has given strength to you beyond your earthy bars.

It’s up to you to break away and look towards the stars.