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Painfully Pleasant: The Paradox of Following Christ

October 25, 2009  |  By: Tyler Kenney  |  Category: Recommendations

I bought The Complete English Works of George Herbert recently, hoping to add a little more poetry and devotion to my reading list. Not 10 minutes after laying my hands on it I read "Bitter-sweet" and knew I would not be disappointed. I'm tempted to say these are the best 8 lines of English poetry I know of.

Bitter-sweet

Ah, my dear angry Lord,
Since thou dost love, yet strike;
Cast down, yet help afford;
Sure I will do the like.

I will complain, yet praise;
I will bewail, approve;
And all my sour-sweet days
I will lament and love.

(I've also discovered that John Piper quotes this poem in When the Darkness Will Not Lift (PDF), pg. 78.)

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