Zoey's Got Guts

Part of me feels ashamed
That I am triggered as often as I am.

But part of me knows
You’ve been healing me
From the inside out.

It’s a good work
And how well I know it!

Jesus, I don’t want to feel
Ashamed over what’s left to heal.
I want to feel deep joy and gratitude
Over the good work You
Are continuing in me!

I am “not arrived.”
I am “not all fixed.”
I am “not all healed.”

I won’t be
Until I see Him
Face-to-face!

And yet, I will rejoice
In the good work
Jesus is doing inside me
And in the hard work I’ve done
To cooperate in this
Lifelong process.

I was headed for destruction,
But Jesus intervened then
As He intervenes now
To make me more like Him.

People may judge me
For not being prettier or shinier…

But Jesus knows…

What’s been done to me
And how I’ve been wounded.
And He’s breaking ancestral chains
Through my life.

He’s breaking those chains.
He has the power to do it—
Not I.

And He’ll show me how to walk
More healed along the way.

You, who judge me—

You don’t know what
I’ve come from.
You don’t know
How much He’s worked
Inside of me.
You don’t know
What I’ve been through.

But He does.
He Knows.

Therefore, your judgments
About me are flawed.

And if He doesn’t condemn me,
And He doesn’t,
You don’t condemn with truth.
Your condemnation is false.

What Jesus says about me
Is true!

Friends who know my journey
Support me in it.
They know the way
Has been fraught with pain.

Jesus unravels the lies
And replaces those lies with truth.

He is my healer.
He makes me new.
He refines and restores.
He cleans me up.

I have been washed clean
By the Blood of the Lamb.

And that Lamb
Helps me learn to walk
Straight and true.

The End

Questions you might want to consider:

• What hits home in your heart?
• Do you recognize yourself in a part of the poem?
• What feelings do you experience as you read it?
• What does this poem remind you of in your own life? Any adult memories? Any kid memories?

Feel free to mark up this poem—make it yours. Put your name in it, rewrite passages, cross out what doesn’t apply.  Share with others if you want!