Day Two -- separation

On the second day of creation the waters were separated from the "expanse". it was a day of division and boundaries. What does that equate to? Step 2, for me, was seeking holiness, obedience to God, separating myself from sin. And of course, (and I can still remember the moment when I finally understood -- but that's another story)in the process, learning I could not manufacture my own righteousness, even though I was seeking to follow Jesus as my Lord, and had to depend on His forgiveness, and his making me righteous.

Sword-sharp the penetration of Your truth
Cleaves my own self from the long-nourished lie
Of my sufficiency; and my pierced heart
Leaks its despair, though all its springs are dry.

This, the unbearable, must now be borne.
This, the unutterable, must be proclaimed
Reverberant, to bring my house of cards
Tumbling to ruins, desperate and ashamed.

There is nowhere to look, no way to climb
Out of the depths of all I must confess:
The dreadful realisation of my sin
In the clear light of Your pure holiness.


How can I stay the thing that I am not?
How can I be the good that You require?
There is no reconciling, no way home
One thing I am; another I aspire.

One thing I am, but not this hopeless wrong;
One thing I am; but not thus to remain.
For You, Yourself, became what I have been,
That I might thus, through You, all good attain.

For You, Yourself came down – down to the pit –
Down to the last lost darkness, thick as tar;
Transmuting hopelessness to certainty
I shall, be holy, since You holy are.

Therefore, I separate me from the murk
Of falsehood, and all foolish false desire;
To will Your will alone, to learn to love,
Turning from sin Your beauty to acquire.