Humility
How many times, I wonder, have I prayed With all my waning strength for some one grace, One desperate panacea to efface The miseries that make my faint hopes fade— How many nights have passed in my despair Before I found the wits and faith to see The providential serendipity Whereby the Lord ignores and answers prayer? For, peering out from terror’s shroud voluminous, At last I realize that what I ask Is not in keeping with the soul-wyrd numinous Which glows within my heart behind doubt’s mask— But when at last I glimpse His purpose luminous, I bow before my long-appointed task.
—J.B. Toner
J.B. Toner is a graduate of the school of hard knocks.
