Sunday, December 31, 2017

Incarnation



~*

It's a sort of reincarnation,
 New Years Eve,
The ritual reset,
A time to rebuild

Having shot our wad
 We penniless paupers 
Come to find our empty pockets
Met by Heaven's Hand
Outstretched
 With the offer 
To Begin Again,

Again

Where our Gideon Hearts faltered
Audacious Grace is given
Where we went left instead of Right
The Way Himself makes a way
Where our bargaining for bad fruit
Betrayed our entire garden
Gethsemane's bloody tears are remembered 
Golgotha is once again brought to bear
Sin, thus silenced,
Is made to stand down, 
And we are rendered 
The chance to stand

This remittance
This rebirth
 This "reincarnation"
Is gifted to us

Lavishly,
Lovingly

By Incarnation

Himself

~*

"I AM The Resurrection and The Life!"
-John 11:25

Monday, December 25, 2017

Gift



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Graced by this gander
Welcome winged harbingers
Warming winter hearts

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Sunday, December 17, 2017

Reflections



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For now
That is what we have
We are moons
Reflecting The Light 
of Faraway Day
Into fellow travelers' night...
All of us longing
For Home

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"Deep darkness will cover the people, but The LORD will rise upon you, His Glory will be seen upon you; The people will come to your light,
and Kings to the brightness of your rising..."

-Isaiah 60:1-3

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Hope



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With David
I Rise
From the dead child's side
I put aside pleas for what is past,
Fix my eyes forward,
And Wait 
For Solomon
To be born...

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"For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the shoots of it will not cease nor will they fail."
-Job 14:7

Sunday, December 10, 2017

Believe



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You can close the blinds
Pull the curtains
Seal off every crack and crevice
Disallowing the Light

You can hunker down in this darkness
Impenetrable
Unperturbed
Insisting "There is no Sun!"
Asserting disbelief in its existence

"How can I," you cry, "believe in a Sun
Which burns
Which causes pain
Which dries up entire deserts
Which hides when warmth is needed most

Whose rising impels me to work
Whose setting allows such Night in my life
When I'm desperate for 
and despairing of the Day?"

You can hold tightly
With the tenacious grip of a toddler
To your defiance of a Deity you don't understand
You can get colder and colder
Wrapped in the blanket of your disbelief
Of your denial
Eschewing any possible Good
Benighted by what you see only as bad

Or

You can risk removal
Of your limited lens
Let your finite perspective
Be peeled away
Accept your smallness in the scheme of Things
Your blindness to The Big Picture

Allow the pain through which you peer
Which has muddied your view
Exposure to Heaven's Orb
Which seems to have wounded you
Which is your only hope for healing

The Sun goes on shining
Whether we believe in it or not
Giving Life
To the most massive of planets
The tiniest of mustard seeds
Indifferent to none
Despite what you thought

His Eye is on the solar system
And the sparrow alike
Nothing goes unnoticed,
Escapes His gaze,
Eludes His Love...

In your most honest moments
The ones no one else sees
When the superfluous is swept away
And all that's left is your most primal knowing
You Do Believe in God

You just don't believe that He is Love
or if you do believe that He is Love
You don't believe He loves You
And the pain of such an errant belief
Is too much to bear
So you choose
Instead
The anesthetic of Unbelief

At war within yourself
This belief and unbelief colliding
In which state Peace is an impossibility

Let It Go

Risk the pain
Feel the fear
But allow also for the possibility of Love
Know simply that you do not know
That even, perhaps, you cannot know

Herein lies the key:
You Do Not Have To Know
Only Believe
What you Deep Down Believe

Let in the Light
And all that comes with it
The "Good"
The "Bad"
The Pain
The Healing

Open the blinds
Choose to see
The Sun is shining
Love Is waiting...

Believe

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"Come, and let us return to the LORD;
For He has torn, but He will heal us;
He has stricken, but He will bind us up...
His going forth is established as the dawn,
He will come to us like healing rain to the earth."

-Hosea 6:1-3