Walk of Faith
Poems of Inspiration
by
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Footwear I started my walk in cotton socks With lace around the edges. White, starched pinafores Little aprons in the best little girl style. To Sunday school we walked a good three miles. Then bobby-socks, Carried me well into my teens To WPWW1 and lectures From Sister King. In stockings with seams I strutted into womanhood I never learned how to keep Seams straight on bow legs Or how to keep from getting runs On benches made of wood. Only the old mothers ever could Master how to keep them from rolling Down to their ankles when they shouted. Now I am walking in panty hose That I suppose Were sent directly from heaven. God knew how he made us- Little-medium, big, and small And that one size could never fit all. 1YPWW- Young People are Willing Workers, a youth group of the Church of God in Christ The Walk Someone must have told you1 Long before you journeyed this far, “That door is closed. Why do you suppose I will open just for you?” But you finessed your way through. For you knew that there is no limit To what a woman who walks with God Can do. Someone must have whispered, (You know how they do) Just loud enough for you to hear, People of her color Should know They will never be accepted here. But you linked your star to the One For whom, far cannot be measured. You had the faith to know That there is no limit To how far a woman who walks With God can go. There were brambles and barricades At every twisting in the road, As though race and gender Were not enough to hinder The less spirited soul. You walked pass them and prayed your way over, Around and through Each and every barrier, For you knew that there is no weight That is too heavy For a woman walks with God to carry. Someone may have cautioned “I wouldn’t take that promotion Girl, they are setting you up for a fall.” But you took it and kept working To get farther Than anyone of us had gone before For you knew that there is nothing That can get in the way Of a woman who walks with God. What a blessing In knowing A woman who walks with God Can scale the peak of Kilimanjaro In a single step, Can kiss the edges of the brightest star, By way of a whispered prayer, And can blaze paths for generations yet to come. You led the way with Nobility, faith, and grace. For you knew nothing can keep A woman who walks with God In her place. 1 Poem written in honor of Dr. Adrienne Israel on her promotion to Vice President and Academic Dean of Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C.
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About the Book
Walk of Faith is about living, growing, and walking in the light. Every poem invites the reader to laugh, cry, sing, and pray with the poet while taking a spiritual journey. Each poem speaks, rather than preaching, to the readers about the universal experiences of all who walk daily in their faith. Even the poem titled “Gentle Sermon” is spiritually and realistically insightful, rather than preachy.
Walk of Faith is a collection of inspirational poems covering more than twenty years that Jo Evans Lynn has served as the unofficial poet laureate of her church. The poems inspire and celebrate all occasions and people from every social realm, joyfully flowing from childhood to adulthood, as a girl becomes a woman of faith in a Pentecostal church. The overwhelming message of the collection of poems is that “a spiritual walk with God is a journey of hope, faith, and joy.” In every poem, whether serious or humorous, Jo Evans Lynn affirms that the goodness of God is an ever-present force in our lives and that there is nothing too hard for God.About the Author
Jo Ann Evans Lynn, a native of Greensboro, North Carolina, taught every grade level during her thirty-seven years in education. She received a master’s degree in reading education from North Carolina A&T State University. She began her career teaching middle school in Virginia in 1973. She is a National Board Certified Teacher who is currently working on her doctorate in educational leadership at Walden University. Jo Ann is the divorced mother of three adult children.