Five-minute Friday: Stay

{A little disclaimer: If you've been following my writing for a bit now, I know it's been on the weightier side lately.  All I can say is, there are seasons to my writing, because I often write exactly where I am.  I also try to look forward, past the moment, to write of where I hope to be, with eyes of faith, and not just my present reality.  I thank you for staying, for hanging with me in this journey, which is a great segue into today's theme of "Stay"...}

GO.

I look up on the wall, above our bed, and my eyes scroll down these vows.

In the sight of God's love 

and in the presence of our families and friends, 

I join my life with yours.

Wherever you go, I will go;

Whatever you face, I will face.

For better or for worse,

in happiness or sadness,

come riches or poverty,

I promise to be faithful to you,

to nurture, care for and encourage,

with the same care and concern that I give myself.

I promise to help you become the person that our Lord has intended you to be,

and throughout our life together, 

you will always be my lover

and my best friend.

I take you as my husband,

and I give myself to no other.

Photo credit

I never knew how hard it is, 

to stay my heart open to love, 

to stay feeble feet to the ground, 

to stay right where I am without getting stuck in the mud, 

until after I took these vows into my heart.  

To stay, in the eye of the storm.  

Stay, when the night lasts too long.  

Stay in the ache of silence, pregnant with hope.  

Stay, in the purifying light of mercy and grace.  

Stay, in failure and forgiveness.  

Stay, in surrender of pride and expectation.  

Stay, in the promises I've made.  

Stay, in the arms of my Love, when all else quakes around and inside and beneath.

Stay, and watch, my pot-holed heart transformed.  

Stay, and be set free, to love more full and wide and deep.

Stay, and build an altar here, so we can look back in time, with bigger, stronger hearts and wiser eyes, and say we drank the depths of love, stripped down to the goodness of God.

STOP.

* Joining up at Lisa Jo's blog for another Five-Minute Friday post.