Posted in Different Thoughts, Uncategorized

seeds.

There are plenty of things I don’t like to see.

Like the receipt of expensive seeds that never took. The end of a great book.
Like dirty side-walks. Or my own hands, holding a shovel.
Like dirt turning to mud, or birds eating seed I’ve just put down.

I don’t like to see young men and women make horrible choices.
Voices of lives taking turns in directions not great.
“Fate” blamed for bad decision, indecision, and pride.

Gates wide with people losing sight and sound of words spoken of them by God.
Seeking identity in every corner but His. Every source but Him.
Lights dim, believing the sun is setting, not rising.

I don’t like to take my family down paths that are winding.
Blinding roads that don’t end up where I told them we were heading.
Jesus sweating tears of blood as He takes on our sins.

But in the midst of it, something new begins.

Forgiveness comes to all, restoring relationships
As grace is flipped upside down, poured out on the ground.
And the round-about I’ve taken my family ends up being found
Right in the middle of Kingdom coming.

Lights dim, and here comes the Son.
False identities crash hard, and façades are torn away.
Because you can’t take costumes with you to jail.
As sails are torn, and offered to God,
He tills the sod, protects the seed. Becomes all that we need.
Holds what has died in the palm of His hand.

And up comes New Life.
Here lives the New Man.

photo

Posted in Different Scriptures, Uncategorized

a poem – from John 19:26-27

Jesus, the Holy One, God’s only Son,

It had all been done, but not yet complete.

Not enthroned with the Father, on His mercy seat

But still hanging, what seemed like defeat, blood pumping pain through his body with every beat.

As each breath comes as painful sigh, out of the corner of his eye he sees…Mother.

Not like any other, so much more than a brother, because family had become more.

More than names, and DNA pumping through veins

More than strained awkward moments of gathering at holiday tables

More than Cain and Abel, or filling empty stables

 Because “Family”, Jesus said, shares more than a home – they share God

So even though it seems odd to not give the nod to those who share a name, Mary doesn’t complain

Because she’s come to believe, started to realize and see with new eyes

That God has a pretty big picture in mind, and it doesn’t even stop at human-kind

But for all of creation, the offer of “NEW”

So much bigger than fitting into the hearts of me and you

But not so big that he overlooks the least – the bullied, the voiceless, the powerless and freaks

The orphans and widows, are for whom his heart still beats, and so he reaches out again

In love to a friend

But so much more than a friendly other, a beloved brother, and introduces them for the first time

as Son and mother.

Saying much more than words in one simple introduction, like an induction to a new way of living

a way of giving up what we thought we knew for something capital “T” for True

And upon further review we hear something for us to do too.

 You see our painful lives tend to blur those around, like headphones, shutting out the sound and letting us drown in oceans of self absorption, and having our portion, we’re content to pray for our needs

 But even as he bleeds, the God-man leads us to old ways made new, challenging us to change our view and have hearts transformed, to let go of the norm.

To shed our obsession with self, and see with God’s eyes, and to be surprised by the people and things

Right outside our door, way outside our walls, or maybe. Even. Inside.

 So what happens when we let go of self, and reduce our emphasis on wealth or even health

Because true health won’t come from drugs and regiments to follow,

not having more surgeries or more pills to swallow

And true family doesn’t happen simply by being born

As we look out on a procreating nation, still torn

Truth only comes as we fix our eyes on Christ. And allow the author and perfecter of our lives

To speak His words that cause mountains to move, and holding palms open, having nothing to prove

To the King of All, to follow his way,

and like those who were near heard him say, as he was crucified on that day,

Words that came as a flood of love to obey

And living this way without caution, this situation offered no other option,

than the first Christ-centered adoption.

As new mother and new son saw each other and smiled

They realized they were both actually his child…