Cultivating delight

Cultivating delight
by Joel Howard

Do I walk in a room to control? 
Do I walk in to manipulate and fight? 
Or can I gratefully receive
Can I cultivate delight? 

Do I enter a place to be in charge? 
To decide and to be right?
Or do I humbly go low
And cultivate delight? 

Do I feel the need to know all things? 
Am I impatient with discomfort and pain? 
Or can I sit with sadness and call out to You
And in emptiness find gain? 

When confusion or trials pour over me
Do I seek to run and escape? 
Or can I lift my eyes to the Beautiful One
Who constantly calls my name? 

When faced with great temptations
Do I quickly try to resolve it? 
Or do I stop and recall your promises
And trust you to absolve it? 

Do I find you in my boundaries
Limitations as a grace? 
Or do I immaturely fight your hand on me
And seek another place? 

Can I recall ten thousand gifts you've giv'n
Before I start my day? 
Or do I whine and demand another one
Forgetting what's come my way? 

Can I pour at your feet my heart, my dreams? 
Can I cling to you to stay? 
Or am I out the door asking for more
Missing you for the "great"?