Updated on March 18, 2021
Poem for Passion Sunday
Tina’s penultimate poem offering for us!
On His Blindness
When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He returning chide;
“Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”
I fondly ask. But patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need
Either man’s work or his own gifts. Who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o’er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.”
John Milton (1608 – 1674)
Today we begin the walk with Jesus to the cross, his passion, when he is acted upon, and in that sense passive.
Milton has entered a dark world. He is wrestling with blindness that has been thrust on him and makes him feel useless.
How do we live when when some calamity, a life limiting impairment falls on us, or when old age curtails everything we used to consider life-giving?
We know that God doesn’t need our work, but are we just to be passively resigned to inactivity? I don’t think that is the meaning of the famous last line: They also serve who only stand and wait. Waiters are servants who keep close to the one they serve, ready for the next instruction. Waiting for the Lord in the Psalms is an image of intensely alert prayer that can be the springboard, through suffering, to new life.
Tina Lamb
Tine, I have been richly blessed by each and every poem you posted, I will miss them a lot! Thank you for serving in this way creatively and with compassion. May the Lord bless you as you go on to serve Him in fresh new ways.