Login
|
Join PoetrySoup
Home
Submit Poems
Login
Sign Up
Member Home
My Poems
My Quotes
My Profile & Settings
My Inboxes
My Outboxes
Soup Mail
Contest Results/Status
Contests
Poems
Poets
Famous Poems
Famous Poets
Dictionary
Types of Poems
Quotes
Short Stories
Articles
Forum
Blogs
Poem of the Day
New Poems
Resources
Syllable Counter
Anthology
Grammar Check
Greeting Card Maker
Classifieds
Member Area
Member Home
My Profile and Settings
My Poems
My Quotes
My Short Stories
My Articles
My Comments Inboxes
My Comments Outboxes
Soup Mail
Poetry Contests
Contest Results/Status
Followers
Poems of Poets I Follow
Friend Builder
Soup Social
Poetry Forum
New/Upcoming Features
The Wall
Soup Facebook Page
Who is Online
Link to Us
Member Poems
Poems - Top 100 New
Poems - Top 100 All-Time
Poems - Best
Poems - by Topic
Poems - New (All)
Poems - New (PM)
Poems - New by Poet
Poems - Random
Poems - Read
Poems - Unread
Member Poets
Poets - Best New
Poets - New
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems Recent
Poets - Top 100 Community
Poets - Top 100 Contest
Famous Poems
Famous Poems - African American
Famous Poems - Best
Famous Poems - Classical
Famous Poems - English
Famous Poems - Haiku
Famous Poems - Love
Famous Poems - Short
Famous Poems - Top 100
Famous Poets
Famous Poets - Living
Famous Poets - Most Popular
Famous Poets - Top 100
Famous Poets - Best
Famous Poets - Women
Famous Poets - African American
Famous Poets - Beat
Famous Poets - Cinquain
Famous Poets - Classical
Famous Poets - English
Famous Poets - Haiku
Famous Poets - Hindi
Famous Poets - Jewish
Famous Poets - Love
Famous Poets - Metaphysical
Famous Poets - Modern
Famous Poets - Punjabi
Famous Poets - Romantic
Famous Poets - Spanish
Famous Poets - Suicidal
Famous Poets - Urdu
Famous Poets - War
Poetry Resources
Anagrams
Bible
Book Store
Character Counter
Cliché Finder
Poetry Clichés
Common Words
Copyright Information
Grammar
Grammar Checker
Homonym
Homophones
How to Write a Poem
Lyrics
Love Poem Generator
New Poetic Forms
Plagiarism Checker
Poetics
Poetry Art
Publishing
Random Word Generator
Spell Checker
Store
What is Good Poetry?
Word Counter
Email Poem
Your IP Address: 18.118.226.105
Your Email Address:
Required
Email Address Not Valid.
To Email Address:
Email Address Not Valid.
Required
Subject
Required
Personal Note:
Poem Title:
Poem
He doesn’t have to prove anything to me. The Holy Spirit, that is. I’ve always known He’s there, from childhood on, even if I ignored Him for many years. But like others growing older, I thank Him now and then just for being there. I think it helps to pay one’s dues as early as possible. The other night, however, an odd thing happened. I couldn’t get to sleep and usually I’m asleep once my head’s on the pillow. I kept changing positions but nothing seemed to work. I was wide awake. And then my arms began to tremble, first one arm, then the other. Alarming, let me tell you. I tried everything to make the trembling stop. rolling over, trying new positions, shaking my arms. I didn’t want to disturb my wife who was watching a Turner Classic Movie because I had no idea what I'd ask her to do since nothing like this had ever happened to either of us before. I never read about the problem, either, in the many medical bulletins we receive. I like to know in advance what might kill me. Twenty minutes later, my arms were still trembling, more, not less. I was another Lawrence Welk, recumbent though I was, and I was growing a tad frantic. Is this how Parkinson’s says hello, I wondered. Then I remembered my faith says that the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, lives in me and other members of His church, which is something I accept but feel unworthy of in light of past performance, if you will. And it’s certainly not something I brag about to atheists or agnostics or folks for whom the Trinity is not an article of faith. I know I’m supposed to proselytize but even if I did it as much as some others do, I don’t think I would begin by telling folks the Holy Spirit lives in me. There are other ways to introduce Him and let Him take it from there. The interesting thing is that although I’ve asked Him in the past to help others going through trials I don’t recall ever asking Him for a personal favor, so to speak. Perhaps it’s because I’ve lived a long life with ups and downs and never really thought to call on Him during the downs or until lately to thank Him for the ups. I’ve called on Jesus at times during the downs. That’s pretty normal for a Christian. But not the Holy Spirit or God the Father. This time, however, with my arms inexplicably trembling just short of violently, I decided to ask the Holy Spirit to stop them. It wasn’t a prayer. I just asked Him silently. I still didn’t want to disturb my wife who takes old movies seriously. You probably know what happened next or I wouldn’t be telling you all this. In a minute, no more than two, after I had asked the Holy Spirit to stop the trembling, my arms stopped. Not one more tremble. I had given the baton back to Lawrence Welk and he had the band playing a favorite of mine from my youth called “In Heaven They Have No Beer, That’s Why We Drink It Here.” Seriously, though, either the Holy Spirit stopped the trembling or something mental or physical kicked in at that moment and the trembling stopped. I’m not too big on miracles once you get beyond the ones in the Bible. I have no problem with Jesus turning the water into wine at Cana or His multiplication of the loaves and fishes or any of the other miracles performed by Jesus and the apostles as explained in Scripture. But the miracles performed by healers on TV, I’m not too big on those. Pin me down and I’d say they don’t pass the smell test. My smell test. But ask me again and I’d say God can do whatever He wants through anyone he pleases. As Pope Francis said on the plane, “Who am I to judge?" All I know right now is that my arms stopped trembling as soon as I asked the Holy Spirit for the biggest favor of my life. I had a good night’s sleep and my arms have not started trembling again. I already have an appointment set up with my internist and I will tell him exactly what happened. I’ll tell him everything that I’ve told you here. And if he prescribes electroshock treatments for me, I’ll find a new doctor. He can believe it or what? Donal Mahoney
CAPTCHA Preview
Type the characters you see in the picture
Required