Across The Wilderness of Hope

A friend online shared this poem that really touched my heart and my soul as a preacher. It spoke to me that no matter what happen in life, there is hope. John the Baptist was raised in the wilderness, in a very unlikely place, but even there, there is hope. It spoke to me since I have been in my own "wilderness" but even there, hope abound and made me what I am now today. It spoke to me that what matter most what we preached and shared is none other than Jesus. [Thank you Earl for this great poem.]

O remember John who spread news in the wilderness.

Who would listen out there, out there where abound the grass?

But he called all to shed their former selves for the new,

Beyond  regular days, not the ordinary.

Repentance is not shedding a tear, or showing sorrow.

And hope is not lost when there seems no tomorrow.

Something is coming like the wind, like refreshing water,

Something like fire burning, like hope making things new.

It is not in the city where lives are priced by real value.

It is not in possessions, that life is filled with riches.

Somebody comes to the poor to say God blesses,

Somebody whose life is a gift, a gift so very true..

Like John, we point beyond the Jordan to a greater one,

Our task is not to draw the world to us, not ourselves.

But find Jesus with others along a hope for all,

Across sea, hills, wilderness, plains, and villages.

- b y  E a r l  C a n l a s