I simply don’t have enough faith
to be an atheist:
too much sin and beauty in the world
for me to believe
this all unfurled without so much as a thought.

I simply don’t have enough hope
to think that I can live this life
without the slightest stroke of accountability
to something or someone
Larger than Me.

I simply don’t have enough love
to comprehend that the evil and the good
should spend their time
in such opposite ways in this life
and yet in complete sameness in whatever comes next.

And so I live with this tragic smallness,
trying to give a bit
of what has been given to me,
trying to see and to show
the same good grace that I know,

accepting that sometimes
I will be seen
as more than a bit of a fool,
forgiving and being forgiven,
loving those I’d sometimes rather ignore,

believing that henceforth
there is stored up for me
something more
than dirt and decay,
a passing thought on a rainy day.

H. Arnett
7/11/13