Easter Wings (George Herbert)

I wrote this blog post for my Intro to Poetry course. At the suggestion of a dear friend, I have posted it on my own blog for your own edification. I hope it gives you something to think about - the hope of salvation through Christ!



"Easter Wings" by George Herbert

Lord, who created man in wealth and store,
Though foolishly he lost the same,
Decaying more and more
Till he became
Most poor:
With thee
O let me rise
As larks, harmoniously,
And sing this day thy victories:
Then shall the fall further the flight in me.

My tender age in sorrow did begin;
And still with sicknesses and shame
Thou didst so punish sin,
That I became
Most thin.
With thee
Let me combine,
And feel this day thy victory;
For, if I imp my wing on thine,
Affliction shall advance the flight in me.

The religious meaning of George Herbert’s poem “Easter Wings” is evident in the title, content, and form of this poem.

Easter refers to the Christian holiday which celebrates Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. Jesus died on the cross, taking on the sins of the world, and descended into hell for three days, experiencing total separation from God his father. On the third day, Jesus rose again from the dead, thereby conquering sin and death. He ascended into heaven to rejoin his father.

The speaker uses two stanzas to describe two men with the same problem: sin. The first stanza discusses Adam, the second discusses the speaker himself. Adam, when he was created, was placed in the Garden of Eden “Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store”). In Genesis 3, we read that Adam lost the privilege of living in Eden by falling victim to temptation. Thus began his descent into the death and destruction brought about by sin (“decaying more and more/Till he became/Most poor”). The speaker’s life follows the same pattern at the start of the second stanza; however, he begins in a different place. Where Adam was created in perfection, the speaker, suffering the consequences of Adam’s fall, was born into sin (“My tender age in sorrow did begin”). The consequences of his depraved nature are evident in his own decline (“with sicknesses and shame/Thou didst so punish sin,/That I became/Most thin”).

The second halves of each stanza bring the hope of redemption. “With thee,” the signal phrase that marks the transition from death to life, binds the reader to Jesus. Interestingly, in the stanza about Adam, the reader still pleas for mercy on his own behalf, “O let me rise.” The speaker begs the grace of God so that, through Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus’ victory over all sin (therefore “victories”), he might be brought back into relationship with God. In the last line of the first stanza, “Then shall the fall further the flight in me,” “the fall” refers to Jesus’ descent into hell, meaning that through Jesus’ death and subsequent resurrection, the speaker may be brought close to God. In the second stanza, this idea is expressed in the idea of grafting a wing onto Jesus’ wing. The use of the world “affliction” in the last line of this stanza hints at the verse 2 Corinthians 12:9, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” Everything that afflicts, or weakens, the speaker will make him rely all the more on the grace of God for salvation and restoration.

The form of the poem follows the speaker’s line of thought. As the lines become shorter from the beginning to the middle of the stanza, the reader’s eye moves down the page more quickly, representing Adam and the speaker’s descent into sin and death. “With thee” begins the sections of each stanza that bring the speaker out of despair, corresponding with Jesus resurrection. As the speaker lengthens his lines, he soars on the wings of the one who saved him from his sin, Jesus.

Awake My Soul (Caedmon's Call)

I feel like I've just been away from the blog for awhile. And I'm feeling particularly uplifted at the moment. I'd like to document it, just in case things come crashing down around me in the next few days. Not that I'm planning on it, and not that it would negate these good things, but I feel like the tone of the post will be far more encouraging at this point.

And I'd really like to put off any and all reading I have to complete before tomorrow.

I titled this blog after a hymn that I've grown to love (one line in particular) and that we sang in church this morning. I've posted it here for your own benefit, but feel free to skip down if you'd rather just read my musings. (Although, I think the song will be far more spiritually uplifting.)

The image of God invisible, the first born of all life
Before and within, he holds it all in
One name, one faith, one Christ

No one is good enough, to save himself
Awake my soul tonight, to boast nothing else

I trust no other source or name, nowhere else can I hide
This grace gives me fear, and this grace draws me near
And all that it asks it provides

No seam in this garment, all my rags to hide
No less than your love, for Jesus is mine

When I stand on the edges of Jordan
With the saints and the angels beside
When my body is healed, and the glory revealed
Still I can boast only Christ

No one is good enough, to save himself
Awake my soul tonight, to boast nothing else

The line that's my favorite is "this grace draws me near, and all that it asks it provides." I see the ways in which God is providing the grace I need without my own awareness. Let me back up a bit...

A friend from church has really been encouraging me to date this one guy. I'm not opposed, but I feared her encouragement because I know that, as a girl, her egging me on would push me into having feelings for this guy rather than allowing me to discover them for myself. I had an inkling of a crush last year, kind of abandoned it over the summer, and now I'm just wondering. Wondering if he's interested. Wondering if I'm interested. Wondering if we'll ever have a conversation that goes deeper than how his classes are going and the occasional prayer requests shared in group settings.

I asked the advice of a friend at the end of last semester - how should I respond to this friend who is egging me on? How should I approach the potential in this relationship? And he gave me the most sound advice ever - "You have to be in a good place with God before you can even think about pursuing a relationship with this guy, not matter what that entails."

Of course. I should have thought of that.

Well, being home over the break was rough. I found myself falling into temptations because of my own idleness (the topic of our campus minister's most recent sermon). And for all the thought I gave to pursuing boys, God definitely wasn't one of them.

One of my Christmas break epiphanies was the difference between "responsibility" and "discipline." I have always been a responsible person. I do all the homework that needs to be turned in, and usually do it well. I take care of the tasks set before me. And my guilt complex keeps my moral compass pointing mostly north. I think I've always assumed that I'm a diligent person because I pride myself in being an upstanding citizen (that's what all those awards in high school proved, right?). I mean, honesty, integrity, respect, responsibility, perseverance, I had it all! Or so I thought. I remember my 6th grade math teacher yelling at our class for not going home and studying our notes from the day before. She was asking us about triangles, but none of us knew the information because we'd just blindly copied it the day before, not gone home and studied it. And that whole "For every hour you spend in class, you should study 2 outside of class," yeah...never did that. Nor have I been consistent about spending time in the Word and in prayer with God for the past, I dunno, 8 years? I think it all points to something.

Then we had our RUF planning retreat before classes started back. We sat down for our first afternoon session, which our campus minister said would consist of a devotional and a time of prayer. And I was shocked by my reaction - nerves! My gut clenched up and I thought, "I don't want to pray for 45 minutes! I'm not in the right place! I can't do this here with these people!" I was nervous about praying.

What a telling feeling. So I confessed that - during our prayer time, I just confessed that I was prepared to plan for our campus ministry for hours, but wasn't prepared to come before God in all my sin and shame. That was pretty telling. But it was the start of a real change in my relationship with God. He was so good to me - He allowed me to be open as I prayed with my brothers and sisters. He quietly called me to himself. And he began to plant seeds of what I'd like to see happen in my small group during the semester.

(That's a whole other topic - the matter of "what kind of standard can we set for a sinner to lead other sinners in a small group?")

So with the start of the semester came a new vulnerability before God, a new desire to spend time with him, and a new grace in diligence. I found myself able to confess sin before God. I found myself needing to confront a friend, and in the process do business with my own heart. I found myself preparing for small group and looking to pursue my girls in a whole new way. And I rediscovered the joy of the truth of the Gospel that comes just by reading a chapter a day.

And in this, I have found great joy. God has blessed me when I least expected it. I've had a great conversation with one small group member already, been incredibly encouraged by our first small group session together, repaired my relationship with my dear friend, and now I've found success in my studies (keeping up with work) and in my future plans (interview at Wake).

All that God asked was for me to pursue him, and he placed in me the desire to make that happen, and the diligence to follow through.

Now I'm only left wondering about the boy...