Determined to waste no precious time, i decided to spend my two hour free time at our school's library. I had two reasons why i need to go to the library, first for a research i needed to do for my Psychology report and another was to find and read a random book.

And of course, after spending not much time gathering info for my report. I went ahead and to read the book i picked from the shelf, it was a book entitled "American Poetry". A compilation of the finest pieces of poetry in American history. And since i had long been interested in the works of modern poets these days, i thought reading the Classics would be fun.

I was curious if i could find a poem that is as playful as the poems we have these days. And yes, i was not disappointed, and so for those of you who thinks poetry has to rhyme all the time, you better grab a book with a bunch of old poems in your free time. Then you'll realize, "Man poetry doesn't even need to rhyme."

But what really made that time all the more special, was reading the first poem on the book which was entiled "The Flesh & The Spirit" by Anne Bradstreet . The poem was filled with so many convicting and powerful lines, basically it was talking about the contrast in the desires of the Flesh and the Spirit, and as a young Christian whose going through some shaky grounds right now when it comes to my Spiritual walk, God definitely intervened in my life through this poem. I wrote down lines that spoke powerfully to me.All these lines are lines which "The Spirit" or the woman who has found satisfaction and life in Christ says in the poem:

"Disturb no more my settled heart"

"Thy Sinful pleasures i do hate,
Thy riches are to me no bait,
thine honors do nor will i love;
For my ambition lies above."

"The hidden manna i do eat,
the Word of life it is my meat."

"The City where i hope to dwell,
There's none on Earth can parallel."

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL POEM

It's definitely a must read. I relate to this poem very much, for often times we are tempted to think of this world and to let the Flesh win the battle. But then there's so much more joy and reward in living a life in the Spirit. Everyday we can be tempted to put our hope in the richness and temporal pleasure of this world, but by God's grace we can choose to fix our hearts on what lies above. And i needed to do that more than ever, i needed to fix my heart & eyes firmly on Jesus Christ. Too many distractions surround me, and it was sad that i let them get me. So i really was blessed with this poem. I hope by reading this you become encouraged too. :)