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Before I Go Hence

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My secret place—
not really a secret.
It's where I long to be.
When the world around me
moves too fast,
to this place I often flee.
Or when I deny myself access
to a throne of His grace
simply by virtue of my neglect
I return—I hasten to the place
where mercy drops 'round me fall.
Just me—myself.
But there—well, I'm never alone.
I have set the Lord always before me:
Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved
(Psalm 16:8).
Fascinating.
And He's there
in this trysting place.
Neither will he move, for he has already said
he would never leave nor forsake me.



Psalm 39:4-5; 7; 13
Lord, make me to know mine end,
and the measure of my days, what it is;
that I may know how frail I am.
Thou hast made my days as
a handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing
before thee: verily every man at his best state
is altogether vanity.


And now, Lord, what wait I for?
My hope is in thee.


O spare me, that I may recover strength,
before I go hence, and be no more.


Jane Bennett Gaddy
May, 2010

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