Buttprints

Okay, time for a lighter moment again. A friend sent me this poem a while back and I think it's fits (loosely) into the current renewal idea.

One night I had a wondrous dream,
One set of footprints there was seen,
The footprints of my precious Lord,
But mine were not along the shore.

But then some strange prints appeared,
And I asked the Lord, "What have we here?"
Those prints are large and round and neat,
"But Lord, they are too big for feet."

"My child," He said in somber tones,
"For miles I carried you along.
I challenged you to walk in faith,
But you refused and made me wait."

"You disobeyed, you would not grow,
The walk of faith, you would not know,
So I got tired, I got fed up,
And there I dropped you on your butt."

"Because in life, there comes a time,
When one must fight, and one must climb,
When one must rise and take a stand,
Or leave their butt prints in the sand."

-- author unknown

My apologies to Margaret Fishback Powers, author of the emotionally powerful poem, "Footprints," for promoting this (almost)tongue-in-cheek, and not so well written parody. Margaret Powers' poem expresses a wonderful truth about walking with Jesus but this version is instructive as well, I think.

A note of trivia: Margaret has legally established her claim to authorship of the poem after a confusing and contradictory controversy that cast a shadow over the ministry of the poem for years. She's recently written a devotional book on the "Footprints" theme, published by Harper Collins. She lives in our part of the world. She and her husband, Paul, have conducted an evangelism ministry for years.

Now I'm going to get off my butt and do something.