POEM - God Gave Me

God has given me Faith for my fears
Comfort for my pain,
For my sorrow He poured out Joy
He’s my Umbrella in the rain.
God gave me Love for my hate
Humility for pride,
When in am sick, He is a Healer
He wipes my tears when I cry.
God gave me Peace in all of life’s storms,
He’s my compass when I’m lost,
His Spirit burns deep within me
So I’ll never feel the frost.
God gave me everything I needed
I’ll never live in want,
He sent His Son to die for me
And now lives deep within my heart.
Thank You God for all You’ve given
You spared nothing for me
So right now I return
The Praise and Honour truly due
To You…

POEM - My life, a drama

My life is a drama
Unfolding on a stage unseen
Where the seats are filled with puppets controlled by me

My life is a soliloquy
An ode of pain
Masked with Joy
My torn heart
Painted to look whole
When it’s broken

My mind runs endless sequences
Of should-a-could-a-would-a’s
Events that forever replay
For my own secret viewing
My imagination running
From the mundane
Into a world where
All things are possible
Where the monster kills the hero
The lovers find no happy ending
And the lost puppy ends up in the pound

Guilt plays a major role in this
It makes the drama more dramatic
The scenery more drab
The lines seem suicidal
The masks more real
Truly hiding what’s really inside
My hurts covered by masks
Painted happy
My sorrow masked by a mask
Of laughter
I must confess that mine is
A painful life
Only you will never know because
The façade is so real

But despite all this drama
There has only one thing
That remains firm as a rock
It breaks through my masks
And shines whole and free
From my broken heart
It has the power to take me
From my play of depression
To a reality so positive and sure
And this is it: My Faith
In God, in Jesus His Son
And In His Spirit

It catches me at times unaware
Beginning with a song
Thoughts form in my mind
And a whole new drama
Unfolds in my spirit
It’s the story of my pain
Mixed with my themes of sorrow
But it has a twist before the end
That twist happened
When God stepped in
He re-wrote the lines of my script
Shaping them to suit His purpose
He gave me Joy, Peace
And much Happiness
He’s the reason I still live today
It’s His Will that keeps me breathing
His Love that keeps me
Safe from myself

My life is a drama
Switching from black clouds & rain
To rainbows and sunshine
My masks are not wholly gone
I still resort to them
When I need to
But God’s Light in me
Can never be disguised or hidden

My life, A Drama

POEM - TEARS

T – is for the time we spent together.

E – for everything we did.

A – is for the afterlife, where God will call us hither

R –for the Respect that is deserving of you

S – is for the moments of silence I maintain as I mourn these tears for you.

POEM - Many times

Many times I felt that the Lord was not with me, and I often wondered if it was true that He was there…
Now I see that it was not I who was not with Him…
I went my own way and left His glory, walking in the rags of my own self- righteousness.

Many times I felt that the Lord did not hear me and I often wondered if He even bothered to listen…
Now I see that He always heard me when I called out to Him – in sickness & in health, in joy as well as in pain…
The problem was that I did not try hard enough to listen to Him and hear what He had to say.

Many times I felt that the Lord was too far from me to even know about how I was doing here on earth, too far to see the burden of my everyday life, too far to care…
Now I realize that He is closer to me than my skin, He sent His only son to die on the cross for me, bearing the burden of my sin and shame upon His torn and weary body…
Yet He came back to life, to prove to me that He is greater than all my problems and burdens… WHY?

Many times I often wondered WHY?
Why did He do all that?
Why did He die for a sinner like me?
It was I who turned from Him, I who never tried to listen to His voice, I who thought Him too far to care…
WHY???

HE DID IT BECAUSE HE LOVED ME.

POEM - Letting go

Two simple words yet they mean so much
One small phrase yet it carries such weight

Letting go it is not easy because it means moving on
It means that times are changing and so are we

Letting go is the last thing on my mind.
But you’re gone now and it’s hard to accept

Gone are your smiles and gone are your tears
Gone is your laughter and gone are your fears

Letting go is so very hard to do yet I must do it.
But then Letting go is actually easier now

Since I have Jesus beside me to take your place
He was always there for us when we were together

And now He is here for me and there with you
Letting go is not so hard because through Jesus we have an eternity to live.

_____________________________________________________


This was written at a time when I had to say goodbye to some very good friends who had moved to another country, saying goodbye is never easy and letting go even more so.

POEM - Equal: To be or not?

It makes me wonder how we can be so equal in Your sight and yet are not.
It shocks me when I see racial indifference in the eyes of Your most Prized creation.
The hatred we bear towards one another,
Only because of the variance of the colour of our skin.

Your Word affirmed our status as Equals in every aspect of Life.
You laid down the One Law that is above all, “Love your neighbour as you love yourself.”
Love each other unconditionally, easy to say, hard to follow.

Abba, I know that it begins with me;
So please help me to love unconditionally,
To treat all as equals; regardless of race, religion or colour of skin.
I want to love all peoples unconditionally just as you love me.

Equal – To be or not?
I choose to be.
____________________________________________________

Note: -
I wrote this poem to address the issue of racism within the church, a shocking yet true revelation. It was my prayer that when people read it that they would choose to be equals and love unconditionally as outlined in the third stanza.

POEM - Everything that has breathe

All living creatures, great and small,
God made them special; He made them all
Each with breath to gladly sing
Their praises and honour to the King.

He made the world and all within,
The bird’s feather & the fish’s fin
He gave them life and bid them live,
Live life to the fullest, spare nothing; just live.

Everything that has breath He owns,
All of creation, above and below,
He ordered their steps throughout this world
Nothing they do is out of His control

Thank You Father for creating me,
For making me special & unique as can be.
I praise you Lord for your perfect plan
To seek and save my fellow man

As I continue to lift you up,
Everyday and everywhere,
My fervent prayer shall always be:
Let everything that has breath
Praise You my LORD!

Composed by Sailosi Toganivalu
Sunday, 6 February 2005

POEM - Courage

I am not afraid of the fiery furnace set alight for me,
Because I know that my God will walk with me in the fire…

I am not afraid of the floods that flow towards me,
Because my God will hold my head up high above the waters…

I am not afraid of the wild animals out hunting for me,
Because my God will hold their lips shut so they cannot devour me…

The Lord has called me to a higher living,
He has set me apart for Himself,
Anointed me with His blood,
Clothed me with His glorious righteousness,
And placed His Holy Seal over me.

I am His child,
The apple of His eye,
He loves me
And nothing in this world,
Not even Heaven or hell
Nothing in all of creation
Can ever separate me from the Love of My God.

Written by: Sailosi Toganivalu [29-09-04]