Dark

+

So easy,
in the Winters of our lives,
to feel disillusioned
(at best)
at worst, to despair,

When what dressed us,
what covered us
is stripped away
and we are left,
cold,
in the dark,
as the old dies,
to make way for the new...
the tattered dry leaves garment removed
readying us for What Is To Come...

Our human tendency to near-sightedness
does not allow the benefit of long range vision
which would soften the stripping down
the exposure
which would warm the cold clean slate,

The Canvas

In the Beginning was a Winter too,
one which was marked with deep darkness,
one which was without form, void,
Empty

And over it hovered the Master Artist,
The Michael Angelo of Creation
Paintbrush poised,
dipped in Light,
Ready to Begin...

In the Silence
Listen for the "Let There Be...",
In the emptiness
Hold steady,
And Know that what you hold is not the end,
But the waiting canvas of darkness
onto which Will be painted 
Light

+

"In the Beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The earth was without form, and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Then God Said,
"Let there be Light."...

-Genesis 1:1-3

Dinner Time

"Come!  All you who are thirsty!  Come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare."

-Isaiah 55:1-2

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Which credentials carry the most weight on our religious resumes?  Which assets do we prize on the pages of our portfolios?  What do we bring to the table when called on to feed a hungry and thirsty world?

Are the impoverished souls surrounding us forced to settle for silver and gold, or can we, like Peter, say to them, "I have what you really need, and what I have I give you..."

What did Peter have?

He had Jesus.

Are we serving up superfluous sundries or something of substance?  Christ or cubic zirconias?

For too long we've offered tokens, trinkets, and trifles to a world starving for the Savior.  For too long we ourselves have been content to nibble around the edges of Who God is, to fill up the gaps of our faith with garnishes...

...But Immanuel is inviting us to feast on His fullness, to know Him as Peter knew Him, to know the breadth and length and depth and height of Him, so that we can, in turn, invite others to the table, so that we have solid food with which to "feed His sheep".

So come to the table

Pull up a chair

Make yourself comfortable

***It's Dinnertime***

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"Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who boasts boast in this: that he understands and knows Me."

-Jeremiah 9:23-24

Wanderings

"You number all my wanderings..."

-Psalm 56:8

+

I will take you Home

Carry you far from all you've known

But let it go, Love,

Let it Go

Empty-handed lasts a moment,

Becomes Open-handed

and Filled

And you find

Flowing once again

From my Hands

Through your hands

Unimaginable Bounty

Ashes become Beauty

Every regret becomes Redemption

As your wanderings

Become Mercy

Become Amazing Grace

For all who are wandering

For all who want healing

For all who are longing

for Home

+

"Blessed are they whose strength is in You

and whose heart is set on pilgrimage;

They pass through the valley of weeping

and make it a place of springs."

-Psalm 84:5-6

Burn

"If the light that is in you is darkness,

how great is that darkness."

-Matthew 6:23

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We are here to show The Way Home

To be a picture of Heaven

A portent of Life to come

We are meant to house The Light which leads to Safety

and staves off shipwreck

The ersatz "light" we too often allow

to douse and diminish The Flame

drowns out The Still Small Voice

and robs the world of its only Hope

The Hope with which we've been entrusted

The Sacred Fire which Saves

How much of our programming comes from the "light" of our TV's

instead of The Word?

Are we basking in the glow of our phones

Far more often than we are abiding in our God?

We are the white blazes on this trail

And Blaze we must

For all who are lost in these woods

and desperately trying to find The Way

We who are representative of The Resurrection and The Light

have allowed Deity in us to be reduced to tired dogma

Doing our charge, His Beloved World, a grave disservice

May Christ become so concentrated in us

May The Flame burn so brightly

That the world will once again be irresistibly drawn,

Out of Darkness

Into the Light

+

"I AM The Way, The Truth, The Light"

"As He is, so are we in this world."

-John 14:6, 1 John 4:17

The Final Word

+

The Gentle Whisper...

Stronger than the violent wind

Mightier than the earthquake

A Higher Law than the fire...

...Like Lift over gravity

Like The Rainbow over the flood

Like Mercy over judgement

Like "Peace, Be Still" over the storm...

The Gentle Whisper

has

the Final Word

+

"The Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces, 

But the LORD was not in the wind; 

and after the wind an earthquake, 

But the LORD was not in the earthquake; 

and after the earthquake, a fire, 

But the LORD was not in the fire; 

After the fire came a sound of Delicate Stillness, 

A Still, Small Voice, 

A Gentle Whisper."

-1 Kings 19:11-12

A Gentle Thing.........

+

Come

Quiet

your Martha heart

dashing about

fixing

fussing

frantic

no need

no need...

all that needs done

is done

Come

Sit

Be Still

Be Small

I AM Big Enough

+

"Cease Striving.

Know that I AM God."

-Psalm 46:10

Rise

John 11:1-44

+

Dead.

He was Dead.

Past the Point-Of-No-Return

Beyond Hope of Healing

A poster child of unanswered prayer

Underscoring God's Silence

Against this macabre backdrop

Mary and Martha mourned

the Loss of their Beloved Lazerus

Soaked in the Almighty's Silence

And the Loudness of Anticlimax

Friends, in response,

Surrounded the sisters

with flimsy songs of the Sweet By-and-By

While Jesus came on the scene

to deliver a Powerful Here-and-Now

The world's thirst has grown too great 

to be slaked with Sunday morning sentimental slush,

Man's Very Real Need

for The Bread of Life

can no longer be placated 

with potlucks, pithy pulpits, and polished prose

When the Rubber meets the Road

and men need Miracles,

The Beloved of God better Know their God

and be ready to offer

Resurrection

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"...my speech and preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of Power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the Power of God."

-1 Corinthians 2:4-5

New

"The Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces, 

But the LORD was not in the wind; 

and after the wind an earthquake, 

But the LORD was not in the earthquake; 

and after the earthquake, a fire, 

But the LORD was not in the fire; 

After the fire came a sound of Delicate Stillness, 

A Still, Small Voice, 

A Gentle Whisper."

-1 Kings 19:11-12

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Rosh Hashanah , the Jewish new year 5776, begins tonight, at Sundown.

It is also called The Feast of Trumpets, or, in Hebrew, Yom Teruah, 

which means literally, "day of shouting/raising a noise"

May God give you, in this new year, joy befitting the blast of trumpets, shouts and raising a noise...

But may it also be for you

a year of Peace that passes understanding

Stilling of the storm

Beauty for ashes

May He make this for you,

The Year of 

The Gentle Whisper.

Shalom, my friends,

Shanah Tovah,

Happy New Year

+

"You crown the year with Your goodness"

Psalm 65:11

9/11 Remembered

I wrote this five years ago, a tribute to the day we all remember, and to the ephemeral unity this destruction paradoxically brought to our country, its leaders, and their constituents, when, for an all too brief and beautiful moment, congress stood together on the steps of the white house, actually holding hands, and there was a fleeting forgetfulness of differences and division, a trading of the self-serving status quo for one of self-transcendence, a laying down of the vitriol that too often trademarks our government, and a taking up of the standard,

 - may it be said of us again -

"United We Stand"

Two towers fell today ten years ago

Two lives torn apart and ten million more

Two parties came together and cried out to One God

Dual towers downed ending duality on our sod

But oh what ephemeral unity

Was born of death that day

That Tower fell so swiftly

So silently gave way

To ambivalence and bickering

To answers we could not find

To forgetfulness of heroes

To the novocaine of time

The best of human nature

Could not stand the test

But sadly deferred

Humbly bowed

And laid itself to rest.

 

-E.A.A. "Hindsfeet" 9/11/10

~ ~ ~

"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity...For there the LORD commands the blessing"
-Psalm133:1,3

Of Dogma and Deity

+

You cling so tightly to your dogma

Instead of to Deity

Let the flimsy boat

of your 'do and don't' doctrine

break up

The one that insulates you from falling

into the Living Breathing Beautiful Fearsome

Ocean of Him

Jesus was rightly called

"The Stone of Stumbling"

"The Rock of Offense"

The Scandalon

He never missed an opportunity

to scandalize their ersatz "faith"

when it was in anything other than God

To knock the legs out from under

whatever they were leaning on

if it kept them from leaning on Him...

To expose the base "get out of hell free" cards

we so blithely dole out to a world starving for God

"don't drink" "do drink" "don't heal on the Sabbath"

"don't wear that" "do wear this" "be rich" "be poor"...

All of these counterfeit pursuits,

base alternatives to knowing The Almighty

Nothing more than chasing foxes...

And He doesn't want us chasing foxes...

He wants us

Chasing

Him.

+

"Jesus said, 'I AM the Way' " 

Period.

Amazing Grace

+

What if the base version of holiness

you've been metering out to My world

and My version of Holiness

are completely at odds?

What if your filthy rag definition of "Righteousness"

is utterly revolting to My Ocean of Mercy Heart?

Your pasteurized version of purity

creates a chasm between Myself and those I came to Save,

Those I came to Love

Have you lost your sense of wonder at the fuzzy math of My Favor

and on whom My Favor rests?

Have you lost your gratitude for the fact that that Fuzzy-Math-Favor

very much works in your favor?

When did your forgiven heart become so full

of careful cold-hearted calculations,

When was my "Whosoever will" provision

replaced by your selective system of "salvation"

you measure out to My beloved world

You have been miserly with the Gospel of Grace entrusted to you

My precious Precious Child....

You've meant well

even as you've doled out My Heart in this Heart-breaking manner

But Now,

Return

Let the Phoenix of my Mercy
Rise triumphant from the ashes of your judgement

Return to Tenderness

Be Amazed again by Grace

Remember First Love

There is Only Love

Be Still,

Know your God

and reflect me rightly

to the world

I So Love.

+

"For God so loved the world"

John 3:16

Right to Left...

+

Life read from right to left today

As I held my hot coffee

and looked out the picture window

A hummingbird came into the frame from stage right

Green chested and hungry

it lighted on a few flowers,

One,

then two,

then three...

...and in this space of a moment,

into which was squeezed 
a million heartbeats 
and as many beats of his wings

he paused

to flash his emerald breastplate my way,

as if taking a bow,

before exiting stage left...

....We are but a breath

and then we are gone......

Make the Moment Count

+

Tether

+

Tether

Between Terra Firma

and Terra Incognita

Fine as a silken spider web

And as Invisible...

This Thread that Holds me

When all others fail

The ones that seemed

so strong

so steadfast

so substantial...

...the ersatz ephemeral toeholds

this world has to offer

the trinkets

and tenuous affections of man

No, it is not in these that I trust

But rather in the load bearing

seemingly insubstantial

Solid Ground of Spirit

Sacred Segue from Deep to Deep

in Which my flesh finds safe passage

and sure footing

in Which when I feel so utterly lost

I am Finally Found

In God Alone am I Grounded

He alone holds sway over my soul

lays claim to my heart

and affords me

Firm Foundation

Thus Anchored into the Almighty

and His fear-leveling Love for me

Thus held and harnessed in Heaven's Hands

I carry on

and Hold

to the only

True

Tether

+

"God Himself has said, I will Not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support.  I will not, I will not, I Will Not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let you down nor relax my hold on you!  Assuredly Not!"

-Hebrews 13:5 (Amplified Version)

Home

+

And One Day

You look back

and See

That the seeming Madness

Was always Method

That the Path

Was always going according

to Plan

(Even at its most painful)

By It

You Became

All you needed to Be

For the world

in which you walk,

For the Ones

Who are Longing

For Someone

to

Walk them 

Home

+

"...as He is, so are we in this world..."

1 John 4:17

See

+

You are my eyes to See

Those starved to be Seen,

- not seen and judged

as a hireling who knew not the Heart would do,

but Seen with the sight of the holy ones

who stare down these accusers,

who make them drop their stones,

who see and summon the lovely unlikely holiness in others,

as they themselves have been Seen

whose hearts nearly break

under the weight

of the Lover's Love

for His Beloved -

You see through me

those in hiding

too long waiting

for the healing gaze of Grace

to find them,

to fall on them,

as it fell on me...

Thus Seen in this Light,

They

see

Light,

and in turn
are given

Eyes to See

+

"In Your Light, we see Light."

-Psalm 36:9

Benediction

+

Words

When Spoken

Blessings

Which reach back

and blanket

even the past...

Covering

Protecting

Painting red their night sky

Laying down with them in the dark

Whispering Comfort

Keeping Vigil

Resuscitating

When they're sure they've breathed their last...

Invocation sung softly

Succor for their solitary hour,

in which

as it happens,

they were never

really

alone...

+

"I Am with you always"

-Matthew 28:20

Fall II

+

I wonder how many times

the Wright Brothers

fell out of the sky

before

they

finally

Flew

+

Haiku - Choice

+

Awake or Asleep

Costly choices both of these

Awake.......Choose Awake......

+

Free Fall

+

I am Flame

Intangibly tethered to my wick

Lending lovely Light

Yet Straining,

Reaching,

Longing to be Let Go

To free-fall Up

and Re-join

The Rest

of

Heaven's

Fiery

Stars

+

"Who is this coming up from the Wilderness,

Leaning on her Beloved?"

-Song of Solomon 8:5

Held

+

Putting down,

for tonight,

all the

"Which way is up"

curling up in the bottom of my boat

staying dry as best I can

to drift through another moonless night

bereft of bearings

only a scattering of seemingly disjointed stars...

Now I lay me down to sleep

I pray the Lord my soul to keep...

Tucking torn and tattered wings in tight

I close my eyes against this night

and feel,

underneath me,

the swell and the sway,

the rocking,

of The Everlasting Arms...

+

"Lead, Kindly Light, amidst th'encircling gloom

Lead Thou me on

The night is dark and I am far from Home

Lead Thou me on"

~John Henry Newman 1833

Good God

"Out beyond our ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field;

I'll meet you there."

~Rumi

+

Interesting our ideas of right and wrong...

our two dimensional dogmatic "morality"

which, drowning in Love's ocean that covers multitudinous missteps,

goes down measuring misdeeds

in jots, tittles, and teaspoons...

ignorant of the Metadata, the Matrix,

and worse, of the Great Mathematician Himself...

How lonely is this Wisdom

this True Morality

with which Jesus faced down the Pharisees

and got a hooker off the hook

How much we miss

having made our mountains out of minutiae

having traded the God of the Good Book

for the tedium of bookkeeping

having missed entirely the Forest for our idolized little trees

Our Eyes to See fail for blindly staring

at short-sighted subtractions and additions

our carefully made columns

and sticky gold stars...

...When all the while

A Heaven full of stars Waits

For us to Look Up from our flimsy lists and ledgers

To See instead with sextant hearts

Just-Because Beauty,

 Mercy for Miles,

and the sin-swallowing Grace of God

Whose Love has everything to do with His Goodness,

and nothing

 whatsoever

to do

with ours.

+

"I pray that you may apprehend and grasp the experience of the Love of God, what is the breadth and length and height and depth of it; that you may really come to know, practically, through experience for yourselves, the Love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge without experience; that you may be filled through all your being with the fullness of God, that you may have the richest measure of The Divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself."

-Ephesians 3:18-19, Amplified Version

Rush

"Be a lamp, a lifeboat, a ladder; walk out of your house like a shepherd,

help someone's soul heal."

~Rumi

+

Then saviors will come

To all who are thirsty

Like the tide too long gone

From arid

yearning Shores

And will fill the empty shells

Scattered there in the sand

Seemingly abandoned...

...Seemingly...

The Ocean's ebb thus ended

As beauty is given for ashes

Birthrights bestowed for bowls of soup

Soaking the beloved in The Beloved,

Where there was no King

The Kingdom Rushes In...

+

"Then saviors shall come to Mount Zion

To judge the mountains of Esau,

And the kingdom shall be the LORD's."

-Obadiah 21

Watermark

+

The Eternal Moment

In the Upper Room

Which followed

The Crucifixion

That Excruciating Pause

Before Faith

Becomes Sight

Unbearable Stillness and Confinement

The Suspended Animation

Of All Space and Time

Bated Breath of a Thousand Years

Hope held in abeyance

Under the Crushing Weight

Of The Wait --

-- And just on the other side

Of this sliver between seconds

The thinnest veil obscuring their View

The Tide Is Returning

Bearing Down Mighty on their Good Friday Shore

Their dashed dreams

Their Broken Bewildered Hearts

Rushing in

to Watermark them

in 

Unimaginable

Resurrection

+

"It will be said in that day, 'Behold our God upon Whom we have waited and hoped;

We will be exceedingly glad in His Salvation."

-Isaiah 25:9

Ashes?

+

Ashes Seem So Final.

Barns burned down

Bodies laid to rest

Dust to dust

Death's denoument...

But crucifixions are conduits,

Calling cards only

 of Impending Resurrection

Imminent Rebirth...

The Ocean's Ebb is not its end

The Tide returns

Again

and

Again...

After the Interlude...

Ashes,

Sorrows Sown

Do not have the last word

What has been burned down

lays lovely ground,

and will,
in the end

Be Bartered

for

Beauty

+

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, for He has anointed Me,

to give Beauty for Ashes..."

-Isaiah 61:3

no trespassing?

+

Today, on a run, I saw a sign in front of a chuch that said, 

"No Trespassing, parishioners only".....

Really?

Really??

Keeping this blog g-rated prevents me from using the language I'd like to use right now, but it's something along the lines of "Brood of vipers", 

as Jesus more gently put it.......

I was utterly horrified......Jesus would be rolling over in His grave if He were still in it.......

The Big Business of church has drowned out the still small voice that said, "Come, all who are weary" ... "Come all who are thirsty, and you all, who have no money, come, buy and eat, buy wine and milk without money and without price..." 

I find it sadly amusing (pardon the oxymoron), that we would be taken aback to hear, if Jesus came back today and walked through our churches, the crack of the whip and the turning over of tables and pews; we would be shaken at the rage as He delivered the same 2000 year old rebuke, 

"How dare you turn My Father's house into a den of thieves!"

How dare we indeed.....How dare we pick and choose who can join our little country club we slap His name on and call "church".  How dare we treat anyone as a trespasser, we the lot of us, who, but for the Mercy and Love of God, are all trespassers into Amazing Grace........

God help us on judgement day, we who purportedly represent Providence, we "Parishioners".  

We may be very surprised to find God's Heaven filled with all the "Trespassers" the church turned away.

+

"My Name is blasphemed among the people because of you."

-Romans 2:24