Faith is a Gift - Spoken Word Poem - repost

Faith is a Gift

by Brian Shivers - September 11, 2013

We are all on a search

for something we already hold.

That which has always been a gift

we find ourselves

on a pilgrimage to earn.

We hear the voices,

the loud voices ,

the painfully loud voices,

echoing in our ears

and into our being

shouting that somehow

we aren't doing it right.

And we are convinced.

So we feel as though

we don't know how to get that

which we already have been given.

But it is a gift,

not something we earn.

And yet there are others who scream

that we aren't aware enough.

That their version of the truth is that which

will redeem us

or condemn us

to hell -

to the hell

in which they are afraid they already live.

They forget that deep within the sinews

of our being

rests the same gift that for many

has become

a chore.

It wasn't meant to be that way.

You see

it isn't about getting it right.

It isn't about formulas or

earning the gift that burns

in the mysterious space we call a soul.

It is a gift.

It is something that no one has ever fully possessed,

save one,

who walked this holy ground

and made it possible for me to see

the gift of faith that dwells within me -

within you.

And yes,

Yes, you have it, too.

For this morning you woke

and put your feet on the ground

And after the chill of the stone,

the grain of the wood,

the nap of the carpet

became familiar once again to your feet

you took that first step of faith

into the unknown of what is called today.

And when you walked,

you accepted that gift anew.

And every breath that you have taken,

every thought you have birthed,

every ounce of blood

coursing through your warm body

is a response to the gift that you have been given.

Some will say they don't have faith,

but oh yes they do.

For this morning they woke, too

and walked into the mystery.

And that is faith -

that which compels us

to move directly into

the face of that which sometimes

frightens us the most,

life.

Faith is a gift

A gift that no one can own.

A gift that calls us

to respond to the one who gave -

the creator of all gifts.

So now it is up to us.

It is up to us

to swing our legs off the wrong side of the bed

and stand upon our own trembling feet

to learn to walk once again

this day

walking into the gift we have been given;

understanding that when we walk

we do not walk alone.

For faith is a gift.