Love and Loss: A Poem

The accumulated losses of the years I’ve spent abroad

Sometimes make me start to wonder if I serve a loving God.

Where is love in loss and failure? Where is love in hard goodbyes?

Maybe love—to understand it—must be seen through diff’rent eyes.

If I trust that You are loving, bringing rain through darkest clouds,

I can start to see a reason for the suff’ring You’ve allowed.

Then I start to see a pattern where I thought I never could—

Love was with me in the hardships, working all things out for good.

These accumulated losses are the cares I cast on You.

Some are scars, no longer painful; others hurt as if brand new.

In this life to which You’ve called me, and the loss that life entails,

Meet my pain with a reminder of Your love that never fails.

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??????????After six years overseas, Krista Besselman has traded the perspective brought by a childhood of Pennsylvania winters for the belief that the highlands of Papua New Guinea get “cold.” She drinks hot tea and helps track the resources used for Bible translation. She writes Excel formulas by day and poetry by night, which are really just two different ways of trying to make sense of the world. Life in Papua New Guinea has taught her a deeper appreciation for grace, relationships, and high-speed internet.

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Editor

A Life Overseas is a collective blog centered around the realities, ethics, spiritual struggles, and strategies of living overseas. Elizabeth Trotter is the editor-in-chief.