Never Sleeps

While a pastor on the Fort Berthold Reservation I was honored with the Indian name, "NeverSleeps". It was primarily because I was often responding to particular needs in the middle of the night.

Even more relevant, the Lord Himself, Maker of all, "Never Sleeps".

Surely you know.
Surely you have heard.
The Lord is the God who lives forever,
who created all the world.
He does not become tired or need to rest.
No one can understand how great his wisdom is.

Isaiah 40:28

Welcome to every reader. I am a simple follower of Jesus. He is perfect, I often fall short.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Creation’s Refrain

(“We know that the whole world has been crying. It has had much pain until now.” Romans 8:22)

In the moment of lingering silence, waiting for the sun,
buds yawn toward wakefulness, birds spread their wings
prepared to leave their nests to make their morning meetings
on lawns and leaves.

Roses that slept through winter and March
 sprout like covered heads removing quilts that
covered their slumber. Partially dead for a season,
they fumble less for their beauty than we do
for lightswitches hoping renewed coffee brewed.

Mourning Doves call, their mates answer the dawn together
after full night silence, they are make-ready, their song sounds lonely
though they may nest in the same-place year after year.
Black Birds crack open the sod with one dark-eye guarding,
ready to noise the intruder within its vista.
Blue Jays scour the lawn and leaves, picking up bunting
in their beaks for the perfect nursery décor, their
young brood waiting.

But there is a moment, a minute, maybe as much as
a half-hour predawn
where the only sound is the sun scratching the horizon
to pull itself up to vertical and start the song
sung for centuries and newly composed
every next rotation upon the planet that
cannot
complete the universe with verse and measure.

Like a castaway alone on a hidden island,
the days are vibrant with improvised colors
dancing to unfretted music sliding between
half-steps. It is a song, if we forget we are alone,
we would join every morning with the sunrise.

But needing salvation, our planet so full of melodies,
fastens hope to its flag while the trees (replanted)
inch their way to the vertical staff of the conductor’s
score.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Unaverted

Unaverted

(“My enemies are wishing the worst for me; they make bets on what day I will die.” Psalm 41:5 [The Message])

Maybe I’ve found another who dispels my passion for paranoia,
perhaps a friend who frees me from the expectation of
rocks dropped upon my head.
My pain is still like sawteeth grabbing my perception
with odds less than 2 to 1.

I like to love, open the door to pain and joy, with at least
a comrade or two,
until memory serves me, sanely or patchy imagery,
and reminds me of the way my heart was left on the floor
by one or two with whom I sat during
their pain, their loss, their confusion condemned by
those who had answers for every question in creation.

I am not as paranoid as 300 sleeps ago, but still
offer my hand slowly to certainty mongers
for
fear
they will discover (in their neatly-tied bow on
top of the universe) a rock with my name boldly
crayoned; the means without a motive.

May I poke about, just a word or two,
until my breath comes slower and my heart
takes its time, to see if the rocks you find
are monikers left as placeholders for questions
I’m certain to ask with my
eyes unaverted?

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

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?

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Of Afflictions and Deliverance

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but out of them all the Lord delivers him.” Psalm 34:19

It is obvious that the righteous go through troubles. They are no more immune from tribulation that anyone else. Indeed, the righteous may actually endure greater affliction than others. Besides the normal vicissitudes of life, there are inner and outer troubles unique to the righteous.

Monday, April 4, 2011

I just +

I just +

(“Don’t make treaties with the people there, or you will soon find yourselves worshiping their gods and taking part in their sacrificial meals.” Exodus 34:15)

We remain adolescents with hormones racing,
lust-struck by promises of magic-poof on the stage
of our abracadabras.

Let a $ wink at me and I pursue it hotly,
when the *s are brightest, my thinking becomes dull,
I ask no ? about the truth, see no sleight-of-hand suggestions,
I just +  to the gallery = to my searing imagination.

Worst of all I put my pinups on my altar-wall,
bibles and Buddha and Trump and Bikini-ed
await my worship. I’ve received the invitations
and sent the RSVPs, my signature guaranteeing
my devoted attendance.

Pimped out to the sham-hungry, I am glutted
banquet to banquet.
Shorthand allurance has detoured past my best senses
so I devour every fragrant idol; enticement shrouded
by religious dialect.

I make no decisions, just follow the mental secretions
that baffle faith seeking merely truth, not crushes.
We have made a teen idol of the Universe Designer
and
a personal prom-date of the Eternal Lover,
then choose to marry (how fickle and airy)
the one who makes our blood run hot

And leave behind the One whose Blood ran full
before we had a single desire to call our own.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Friended by God

Our Lord, you are the friend of your worshipers, and you make an agreement with all of us. Psalm 24:14

I told my family today I have a goal clearly in sight: 1000 friends on Facebook. I currently have 960. And, as nice as it is to have so many acquaintances sitting on my desktop while I do paperwork, I also think social networking has caused us to lose something in terms of real friendships.

Etch the Diagnosis

Etch the Diagnosis

(“Calling His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over depraved spirits to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every malady.” Matthew 10:1)

Compassion learned is compassion returned to its source;
the beautiful eyes that gaze on ugly days and interpret them
as gems still dirt and grime. Where evil lurks,
healing wins the day. Where darkness hides the leper’s sores,
daylight shows pain not shame to well-learned disciples
who no longer gasp at trapped souls,
no longer gag at vague memories of atrocities inflicted by
them on
us.

Evil still is evil long upon the gray apparitions,
But healing wins the loving back in spectrum’s fullest range:
from infra-red to ultra-violet, sins and violence are sickness
ravaging immunity.

Come once to the Heart which spoke Love upon nothing,
See once the eyes that envisioned dewy strolls with mankind,
hear today the voice that spoke a planet and baby-smell,
Touch the Hands that molded the clay, Lips that breathed the spirit,
and Feet that walked with open wounds in our unsanitary sanity.

Oh religion, die upon your insistences! Oh prejudices disguised as
righteous renditions; meet Him for a day, go to Him in a way
that molts the skin of shammery. We are crust left on the counter
too long.

We will come and sit at Your feet, Physician of our certainties,
and, throwing away our notebooks and pens, let You etch
the diagnosis and healing upon our hearts instead.