“A familiar passage, this poem is a beautiful assertion that God’s knowledge of us – surpassing even our own knowledge – is something in which we find comfort. As we search for and strive to know God, it seems we also begin to know ourselves better.” –Mark Almquist-Murray, Fruit of the Vine

Query: How do you pay attention to and differentiate between your heart and mind?

How can I abide in you,

my Lord? I go for hours

without even thinking of you.

Prayerless days are not

uncommon, and if I’m

not in crisis mode, I find

my joy in other pursuits.

I don’t naturally turn to you

in my open spaces. I don’t

gravitate to the center.

Some kind of centrifugal

force spins me away,

in spite of my longing, my

very real longing, to abide.

Please help me. Pull me in

to you.

–Nancy Thomas, from “Lenten Poems from the Book of John” in Close to the Ground