Currently, I’m reading through a helpful book called “Serving Well” by Jonathan and Elizabeth Trotter. They serve as missionaries to Cambodia. In addition to their book, they created another useful resource for those serving Christ cross-culturally with their website A Life Overseas.

Elizabeth Trotter penned the following poem (found in the book) and the Trotters graciously gave me permission to print it here. This poem strongly resonated with me right in the middle of my chest. Loss and pain are constant companions in life, but the volume and sheer intensity of grief encountered when God plops us in an unfamiliar place is jarring and unsettling at times, even to the point of paralyzing us in uncertainty.

This poem settled some of my unsettling. God used the words to cause parts of my spirit that seemed to be dying to bubble up with life again as gratefulness stirred.

Grief on a Spindle

Will You draw out my grief,
Spin it on Your Spindle?
For my grief is hard to spin,
I always resist it.

It lies in wait, it’s been misplaced,
Matted up with rage and fear.
The coil’s too tight, the thread’s not right
There is no bending here.

This wool’s unfit for weaving,
My heart is unprepared for healing.
And my pain demands disclosure:
Is Love enough to form my skein?

So Spin my grief upon Your spindle
Gently draw out yarn afresh
Spin my grief upon Your spindle,
For my soul, it needs to stretch.

Spin my grief upon Your spindle,
I want to learn Your love anew.
Spin my grief upon Your spindle,
Clear out the muck that sticks like glue.

Spin my grief upon Your spindle,
Coat it with Your oil of Love.
Spin my grief upon Your spindle,
Weave a tapestry above.