Analysis of Do not say “My Ailment”. Do not possess it.
Somewhere in the teachings of Oswald Chambers, deliverance from sin or sickness was attributed to "the expulsive power of an over-riding affection".The man with the vile tongue wishes that he could stop cursing. Time and again he has embarrassed himself in public, or sullied his private thoughts with an obscene or irreverent phrase. He tells his friends that he has "this foul mouth".The woman with the excruciating lower back pain wakes up afraid of the day's demands. She has had months of interruption of activities because of sudden paralyzing attacks. She wishes and she prays that the affliction would leave. In conversations she constantly refers to 'her bad back'.
In attending to the problem, in possessing it, these people have effectively established a dwelling-place for the sin or suffering. What is needed is something more compelling to captivate their thoughts and attention.
I can think of nothing more beneficial than the four Gospels and the noble Elder Brother, Jesus, therein portrayed. Time and again in the story, mercy triumphs over judgment, loneliness, need, despair and affliction.
The heart and mind of blind Bartimaeus had become occupied with the reports of the sympathetic, powerful, healing rabbi, Jesus. (Mark 10: 46-52). When he heard that the Galilean was passing by, he cast off his beggar's cloak, his public badge of disability and need, and approached Jesus. His love and hope in the report of the man of mercy would not be disappointed.
This is what Paul means in Philippians 4 when he says, "Rejoice in the Lord always."
I remember the testimony of a man I knew in Chatham who had vision problems and crossed eyes requiring glasses. He was a Christian and a solid student of the Word. He entered into a season of prayer, fasting and receipt of ministry with the specific intention of getting his eyes healed. Nothing happened. After absorbing his initial disappointment, he resolved to keep on his program of praise and study of Jesus. The intimacy and the affection grew.
The scripture promise in 1 Peter 2 became more and more real:
24Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes (wounds) ye were healed.
Months later, one morning he was late for his factory job and rushed out of the apartment and down the highway to the neighbouring town. During a break in work he went to wash up, and noticed in the mirror that he had forgotten his glasses and that his eyes were 20/20 and completely straight!
Throughout the trial he had maintained the right focus, the right confession and the right affection. He had ignored his problem to death. Paul tells us in Colossians 3 to "mortify" the things in us which tend toward sin and handicap. We are to undergo a change of raiment:
8But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
9Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
10And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
Scheme | X A ABX X XX X B XXX |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10010110100100111101010010110111010111011101111101001110100101011011011101101001111111111110100100101111011010111111010101000111010001110011100101100101100011011 0010101000101110101000100101101110011101101010110110010 1111101010101100010101010010110010010101010101001010010 010111110110100110010100101101111100101101111111110110100010011011010001101110111010 1111101111010011 1010010010111010111010011010010110100010101011100101011100011100100100101101111010100101010010101111111101011001000000101 01010010011011 1111110101110101111011111101001111101 11011011111100101110010010110111001011111101000101110101100111000101 01010110101100101000101011011101111101110010111011010111010111 111101111101101001000101111 11110101011111011111 01110111101010100101110101 |
Characters | 3,118 |
Words | 563 |
Sentences | 31 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 1, 3, 1, 2, 1, 1, 3 |
Lines Amount | 13 |
Letters per line (avg) | 191 |
Words per line (avg) | 41 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 310 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 67 |
About this poem
The message is sheer poetry of rescue. The form does not resemble a poem.
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Written on February 18, 2007
Submitted by dougb.21370 on February 18, 2023
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:49 min read
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"Do not say “My Ailment”. Do not possess it." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/151921/do-not-say-%E2%80%9Cmy-ailment%E2%80%9D.-do-not-possess-it.>.
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