A Short Bending on a Long Path

A Short Bending on a Long Path

(“Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not. Do you not fear me? says the Lord; Do you not tremble before me?” Jeremiah 5:21,22a)

Her life, now, and final, and at last,
is sadly, after all the trying, completely half-mast.
At first she sang out loud, memorized the words,
went with the crowd. She raised the roof and danced
barefoot while new bands sang ancients psalms. She was
first, and primarily, free.

But the songs passed her by, the beaches dried up while
all her barefoot friends went inside. The earned title and
wore silk ties; they were careful not to traipse around the pew
and carpets
with the sand from previous sandals. She settled in,
learned the new songs, and learned to fall at the touch of
the anointed ones who never struck the multitudes as, well,

Odd.

She tried, she did. She squeezed visions from her head, and
forced meaning to the dreams she sometimes remembered wrestling
with tangled sheets on her bed. She upped the ante, she gave more than most.
She spent her mighty mind internal; and locked her lips as she had
learned was her best beauty and wisdom.

She cried, but hid. She bought the newest music, chose the latest flavors,
and lit candles for every relative still residing outside the chosen
neighborhood. If only the world would stop careening (we know
it is time for judgment and wrath). If only they would come inside
and join the unblemished who stopped sinning ages ago.

She refused to lie, any longer. Their songs were sweet, but the singers
vied for the front seats and first class passes. Their dance was unique,
but the steps were judged and scrutinized; freedom died. Their words
were true, and deeds mostly good, but what so many misunderstood when

She pried upon her heart. Some fled in fear. Some stayed to clean up the mess.
Some could not turn away, but refused to hear. Some fainted and insisted the
Holy Ghost
had fallen right then and there.

She relied, finally, only, a little sadly, upon the Only Love she had ever known.
Let her life flutter low on the pole, let others consider her a mistake, semi-whole,
let the tongues like blades continue to touch the fading scars. Never mind every
stark star stripped of its shining.

She relied, finally, fully and surrendered to Love renewed.

Eyes on their Wings

Eyes on their Wings

(“You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things and by your will they exist and were created.” Revelation 4:11)

Can moths with eyes on their wings, or
the color of fallen leaves, stop my traverse from
breakfast to work like a giraffe out of place
at the University commons? Life is not a rebound
from fractured intentions, but a constant awakening
of boundless moments; a necklace adorning
the middle as the end.

Can a doodle inscribed outside the warmed eggshell
hook my glance to stare much longer than my schedule
allows? Etched from within, there is no timeclock
to measure the naked chick’s pointed beginning
to its shivering first sundried, outside, front-born
day.

What can take me away from me, from my,
from I;
what can capture my eye, steal my breath,
start the tear unbidden--
unless I look first for

The invisible, the eternal, ineffable
that dwells as surely in sand fleas
as with the marquee displays of
of wild and foreign universe of space;

Speaks daily with intent of the Maker’s
(as recent this, as forever as then) words
and breath which have scribed a world of
new pages leaping like flames above all time.

He Begged God

“God had the power to save Jesus from death. And while Jesus was on earth, he begged God with loud crying and tears to save him. He truly worshiped God, and God listened to his prayers.” Hebrews 5:7

People have countless images of Jesus. We view Him as the Super-Human miracle-worker slashing demons with a single word. Or, we see Him as the compassionate Healer, touching the sick and restoring them to health. He is the Good Shepherd, tenderly leading His sheep to safety. He is the fearless Master of Creation, stilling the storm with His voice.

Us Pause

Us Pause

(“I’ll tell my good friends, my brothers and sisters, all I know about you; I’ll join them in worship and praise to you.” Hebrews 2:12 [The Message])

As the word went round the circle, mouth to mouth
the quotes and opinions spun; each word hastily proclaimed
like a king or prince or monarch on the run. We were quite
glad for the stories and judgments laid down, for they reminded us
how different, how silver, how shiny we have become. No one
has opinions any more, no estimates or guesses; just a rockslide
of well-worn facts without footnotes; leaving no argument
available for the person cradling coffee alone, silent
at the next table.

We know too much, we echo the findings of our favorite
hole-puncher,
and stutter grain-sized worship that falls upon the carpet
to be vacuumed with the mud and dust later in the afternoon.

Oh Christ, our Love, our Pioneer into our uncharted souls,
Your silence is more eloquent than our flappery, aglow with
patience while we predict the next planetary virus will wipe
out the worst of them-not-us.

Oh Son of Man, our Song, our Conductor into concerted whole,
Your song over them, over us, over all, breaks our hearts,
numbs our tongues until we’ve learned the chorus so well
we no longer tell unrestrained stories to back our cause;

You, our only option, have given us pause…

To begin the ballad sweeter and deeper from front
to end.

What the Lord Requires

“Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you except to revere him, to obey all his commandments, to love him, to serve him with all your mind and being.” Deuteronomy 10:12

Once you assume there is a personal God who oversees all existence, it follows that our own personal meaning must flow out His heart for creation. We are not separate, self-fulfilling agents outside of God’s universe. We are as much a part of all nature as each tree, orchid, ant or elephant. We may be the height of His handiwork, but we are in no way separate from it at all.

Seeking

“I have sought You with all my heart; don’t let me wander from Your commands.” Psalm 119:10

“Seeking God” is almost always connected to some kind of reward in Scripture. Jesus promises that those who ask will have it given to them, those who seek find, and those who knock will find the door open. The idea of seeking God is high priority as the prophet Isaiah encourages us to “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.”

And That is All

And That is All

(“Come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” Psalm 95:6)

My legs are weak from standing, my mind curled from
hashing out each argument to magnify my own codes of conduct.
I hand out glances at the first action that does not glitter in
angelic gold.

My arms of tired from directing the traffic from darkness to
manufactured tanning stations, pointing out the misdirection,
handing out the reserved exceptions to the better dressed who
avoided every beat of music with stains of mud the silent modifier.

My voice is harsh, is rough, is scraped like a knee on the pavement;
I would speak more kindly if the street corner had received my instructions
more readily. As it is, with all the shouting, I am certain I got through to all
who were doubting the sanity of the speaker.

My ears are plugged, are burst, are filled like garbage bags stuffed with
every castaway vegetable and cutaway insurance bill. Crammed,
the sound waves do not even stop to know, but turn away seeing the
door to my listen is far too full to allow another thought a place to
bunk upon the floor.

I have heard of knees stronger for the kneeling, voices sweeter for their song;
I have seen silence that repented scratch into melody. I have held a camping
mug hot with coffee, the fire off the beaten path, the brown liquid left steaming
from early evening and yet, sweeter than summer wine, it tasted of hand
to
hand

And commanded a second look at unhooking my agonizing attempts at
controlling the earth’s rotation. I look into the fire, back at the golden face
of my benefactor, and, life sometimes sends saints unobserved, unconsciously
we kneel, we bow,

And that is all.

The Oeuvre

The Oeuvre

(“Your righteousness, God, reaches to the heavens, you who have done great things. Who is like you, God?” Psalm 71:19)

What lies behind the sky, and behind that, what shines
to light the fires of prying men and women, short on bread,
but long on invention?

What hums below atomic structure, and inside that, what twirls
like wind within each bit of matter that momentary men and women,
short on time, wish to rewind to see it all again?

The days are gray only until the clouds pass away
and reveal
the open pastels of the polished sky.

Overhead, underfoot, we can shake, we can look
and never see or always sense the genius intentions
of a world beyond imagination…If only it would behave
one long minute.

You, Oh Lord, are not deus ex machine, arriving with fanfare
before the paint has dried and we are cornered. I would happily
drop a coin and another to quench my thirst with a soda
and buy an invisibility cloak the next time I am about to blush
from shame or guilt or memories of the same.

You, Oh Lord, surround our idiot currencies, double-siding
our front-side only presentations. You pass through the
spaces between atoms and pass over our aspirations that
never quite get off the ground.

You, Oh Lord, are our delight. You are the not the final act,
but the entire body of work, the oeuvre, corpus Christi annotated
on every unaltered space of time. We will recite, not rote
memorization, but the ineffable lyric unbound by our
nearly rhymed effort to join words to worthy expressions
of joy.

Undying Love

“Grace be with all who have an undying love for our Lord Jesus Christ.” Ephesians 6:24

These are the final words of one of the loftiest writings in the New Testament. With phrases packed full of worship, the Apostle Paul has painted a radiant panorama of the heights and depths of God’s love for us in Christ. I am told that the first chapter, and even more, read as one run-on sentence. It as if Paul can’t get the words down on the papyrus quick enough. One phrase after another describe God’s plan: “heavenly places”, “chosen”, “adoption”, “redemption”, “lavished”, “riches”, “wisdom”, “fullness”. And, the one word full of blessing: “grace”.

Metronome of Grace

Metronome of Grace

(“Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.” Psalm 95:1)

We had wrung every dream we could from the clouds,
we had sung every voice we knew from the sea,
we had searched every star we could and rejoiced,
we had splurged every dime we had near and far

To find the music gushed out of rocks like
the fountains within our hearts.

We were quiet mostly; we listened closely.
We shouted impromptu; we stumbled onto
unwary melodies fit for melancholies and
and stories that twined the sad and joy combined

To heaven’s river that flows without time;
a sweet whirlpool, dance and dirge; outside life
and within each pod of creation.

We sang when darkness fled, and re-sang when
daylight departed; midnight kept time to
the metronome of grace notes divine;
we whispered, we shouted the theme fit
for our King.

Dancing Kids

“My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing and make melody.” Psalm 57:7

One of my favorite poets William Stafford wrote, “Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn’t music.” Jesus told us that we must become as little children to inherit God’s kingdom. This verse speaks of an inner confidence or stability that enables us to worship because the world is filled with God’s handiwork.

A Plea for Restraint

“Lord God All-Powerful, you are and you were, and we thank you. You used your great power and started ruling.” Revelation 11:17

Who is God to me? Is He just someone I refer to, hoping He will rubber stamp my preconceived notions? My heart breaks over so many followers of Jesus invoking His name to lobby for personal interest. I am baffled over the pettiness and ill will toward people who disagree with us. We don’t inquire of their personal faith, nor their own walk with God; No, they support gun control, they want health care reform, and suddenly, they can’t be followers. I have purposely left out two of the most volatile push-button issues because a strong Biblical case can be made for a particular opinion or stand on them.

Buzz or Thunder

Buzz or Thunder

“The proud religious law-keepers said among themselves, ‘Look, we are losing followers. Everyone is following Jesus!” John 12:19

Sometimes the sounds of crowds are just the buzz
like ocean breakers
to lull me back to sleep, deeply completing the dreams
that never appear upon waking.

Just like the scrum after a fumble, with blues and whites
rolling on the green; no one can tell who the ball belongs to,
no one can see the possession, it takes so long to
wrestle the padded combatants from the leather ball
that looks as if it landed here from Mars or farther.

The noise at the endzone, winning or losing, would wake a baby
finally nursed, sweetly breathing. Sticking everything in the infants’ mouth,
from cheerios to fingers, pursehandles to jacket sleeves;
the thunder shakes the earth discordant. Though, if the child
grows up with the barking of partisans, she may enjoy the rumbling
the wakes the dead and keeps the dog shivering under the bed.

Success sells, they say, but my way of thinking is to sell the best,
and the rest will likely follow.

I am sorry, my Savior, that today we would rather cheer a
pink limousine, and hope that Christina A. or Britney S.
is riding in the back reading a magazine. It’s a story
for cafeteria talk, and the room would be ours once.

But, like Jesus disciples, we want the children to keep their
little mouths shut, walk quietly and properly around the house
we call His,
for reverence must outweigh enthusiasm, and so we have learned
to cheer at the far end of the endzone

And whisper at the end of every Amen.

How Great is God's Love

“How great is God’s love for all who worship him? Greater than the distance between heaven and earth!” Psalm 103:11

It is almost impossible to conceive of the love which God has for us. This single verse describes it as greater than the distance between heaven and earth. That is not to say, “as high as the atmosphere”, but “greater than all the universe which surrounds the earth.” In other words, limitless!

Stuck in My Head

“Each of the four living creatures had six wings, and their bodies were covered with eyes. Day and night they never stopped singing, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord, the all-powerful God, who was and is and is coming!’” Revelation 4:8

Are you a person of habit or routine? I know I am. You could set your watch by my regular trip to the Post Office when I pastored my first church. I would drive the half mile into town, go to the PO Box, smile and greet the others retrieving their mail and head back to the office. On the way I stopped at a convenience store to pick up my second cup of coffee for the morning. Tuesday through Friday that was my routine.

Like Fire to the Friend

Like Fire to the Friend

(“Jesus gave Himself to rescue us. God showed us this at the right time.” 1 Timothy 2:6)

I want to run like fire to the Friend who shines
so sharp the sun fades way. I want to rush like water
to the Lover who fills so full the
rivers look dry. I want to gust like wind to the
Hero who wisps so sure the hurricanes
lose their names.

I am poor, I am needy weakness, I am sore, I am solitary abandon,
I am long on requests, short on answers, quick to share my certainties,
slow to list my failures.
Quick to see yours, (finger pointed silently), dim about mine,
(letters written defensively).

What I mean to say, what I’ve always said, is I’m sure I’m a sinner,
as sure as you are one too! It’s the sinning I find hard to admit to,
the daily habit of missing the mark. I will hide my mistake
year after year, while confessing my sinfulness bleak!

I need to fall like fever into the Hands of the Healer
so precise surgeons mime His work. I need to sleep like
a second son next to the Father whose purpose is complete.
I need to stand like a man in remission, disease and death
conquered
by rose petal strength,
reclaimed
by creation-length hope,
restored
by resurrection rule.

I hear the call of the Music which sings
so honey and milk I stop all I am writing,
my muses go to sleep,
and I am loved like Love in all its softness and clout,
by the Brother, Mother, Father, Son;
all-in-one…three-in-all, fully above me,
around me, below me and in me. The distance once eternal
has been closed by redemption’s rugged smile.

What did You Expect?

“When John’s disciples left to report, Jesus started talking to the crowd about John. ‘What did you expect when you went out to see him in the wild? A weekend camper? Hardly? What then? A sheik in silk pajamas? Not in the wilderness, not by a long shot.’” Matthew 11:7,8

Why is it we treat ministry as if it should be a quality performance living up to the participant’s expectations? Our worship “services” are structured so as to make most pastors, worship leaders and other ministry feel like they will be reviewed next day in the Christian press?