anxiety

You are an ocean
I cannot keep from crashing
against the shore.
Thoughts pour endlessly
onto the sand,
rising, retreating, repeating
their attack on the ground.
How many castles
have you swallowed up?
I stand on the beach
with a bucket and a shovel,
trying to make something beautiful-
to make sense of the destruction
that’s become inevitable.
I cannot stop the pull of the moon.
I cannot stop you from taking everything
and knocking me down.
I cannot say “Peace, be still,”
and make the waves obey
I am powerless to part the sea
or break my bondage to decay.
Creation groans,
a bush thick with thorns.
I am pricked by your ocean,
continually warned
not to build my house
upon the sand-
on Christ the solid rock
I stand!