Posted in Different Scriptures, Spoken Word, Uncategorized

Genesis 4:1-16

When Eve knew Adam
She bore him a son
They produced a man
In a world undone

The boys were alive
As seen with the eyes
But as we read Genesis
We realize

That Adam & Eve both died in the garden
And death was their product of choice
So it shouldn’t surprise us to hear from Cain
And hear such a thing in his voice

“But they didn’t die”, an easy response
They simply were given consequence
They sewed their own clothes &
Had to live on the other side of the fence.

To our ways of measuring they seem alive
A problem we still face today
We nod at our abilities when we seem blessed
Never mind that we make our own way

Our own way is death
His Word reveals
Even though heartbeats & breath
Seem to easily conceal

Some people ask how we filled the world
From only one family at start
I think there’s a more significant question
One that begins in our hearts

The right question isn’t “how’d so many
Come from two original brothers?”
Rather- how’d we grow at all
with a nature
Of killing each other?

Posted in Different Scriptures, Spoken Word

Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7

It wasn’t a magic
apple or pear
That made Eve and Adam
even more aware

Aware that their status
was less than divine
A choice that brought death
To theirs, yours, and mine.

The choice was not simply
To chew and to swallow
The choice was to lead
Instead of to follow

To say “we know better”
When God gives a way
It’s a choice that still
Looks tempting today.

A choice to serve self
Over loving others
To see enemies
In our sisters and brothers

To live lives divided
Apart and alone
To deny that Jesus
Has taken the throne

By giving himself over
To the worst of our choosing
He won the battle
We were already losing

We’ve been set free
Reconciled to Love
No longer burdened
With “doing/being enough”

We are less than divine
That’s Grace Freely given
As His Love brings life
To we, who weren’t living.

Posted in Different Scriptures, Spoken Word

Isaiah 58:1-12

I told them I’d love a pair of shoes.

She brought me buttered toast.

She said “I even spread it thick,

Because I love you most.”

I asked them for an umbrella

To protect me when it drips.

They gave me a new LEGO set

With little pirate ships.

I asked to see them work together

To show love can abound

They pushed and shoved each other back

To show the love they’d found.

We see the silliness herein

And smile at silly words.

We think of how such children would

Be really quite absurd.

Yet God has asked to “end injustice,

Give the hungry food to eat.”

And every year we smile and say

“We hear you – we give up sweets!”

May we be truly humbled 

By the way we miss the mark

But not into inaction –

May humility be the spark…