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

Middle

+

Middles are Messy.

In any Great Work of Art,

Michaelangelo's David,

My God, the dust, the pounding, the breaking...

A Butterfly in the making,

Nothing but a cocoon full of goo...

Creation Itself,

On Day Three, probably looked more like Madness than Method...

We short circuit our Beginnings,

We get stuck in the uncomfortable 'In-Betweens'

of what's been "Authored" and what will be "Finished",

the Work Begun and the Work Completed...

Our Belief stalls out on Day Three,

Stopping short of the Rest awaiting us on Day Seven,

We draw conclusions before all the data is in,

While there are still Three Days to go...

The Execution of a Great Plan

- One for Peace, and not Evil,

For Hope and a Future -

Sometimes takes more than five minutes,

More than our minute attention spans allow for,

And we abort our Beginnings

Before they have a chance to Begin...

So Breathe

Breathe through this Middle

Keep Walking

God is the Alpha and the Omega

The Beginning and the End...

Let Him also be Lord

in the

Middle.

+

"Trust Me; I know the Plans I have for you: Plans for Peace and not Evil, Plans to Prosper you, and not to harm you, Plans to give you Hope and a Future."

-Jeremiah 29:11

Communion

+

Anchored

Here,

In the Deepest Place

Axis of the wheel

Ancient Mooring

Abiding

in You

Here

We touch,

Here

We speak

Face to Face

Mouth to Mouth

We Breathe...

...and the Well is tapped...

Your Kingdom Comes

You Come,

Rushing upward

Soaking me

Saturating me

Gushing out of me

Like water from the Rock,

Drenching every Desert Heart

Slaking every thirsty soul

Bathing Your Beloved

in

Communion

+

"Blessed is he who is in You; he passes through the valley of weeping

and makes it a spring; the rain also covers it with pools..."

~Psalm 84:5-6

Letting Go

+

We treat our lives, at times, like an all-terrain vehicle

And our walk with God less like walking

and more like off-roading...

Clinging so tightly

White-Knuckling the steering wheel

In an attempt to avoid catastrophe...

Yesterday, I went through a car wash...

I pulled up to the opening, 

Lined up my tires with the track,

Rolled down my window at the attendant's behest

At which point he told me,

"Put it in Neutral and Let Go of the steering wheel"

The track took hold of my car,

Pulled me along, 

Peacefully,

Smoothly, 

Methodically...

And everything was cleaned that needed to be cleaned...

Everything was done that needed to be done...
I made it through to the other side...

Without any hyper-vigilance on my part

Without anything on my part......

Just the Letting Go.........

+

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

Lean not on your own understanding,

In all your ways acknowledge Him,

He will make your path straight."

-Proverbs 3:5-6

Born II

+

Shimmering

This Morning

Elegant movement in the Stillness

The Silence,

Sublime,

and Soaked in the Only Sound

The Still Small Voice

Which Spoke,

"Let There Be",

Which still Speaks

and steeps me,

Quietly,

in

Creation

+

"Let There Be..."

Genesis 1:3

three wishes....

+

We consider it,

in our fairy tales,

a very generous thing

to be offered

not one,

not two,

but three wishes....

...We may not have

a Genie in a Lamp,

But we do have

a God in Heaven,

who offers us,

not wishes,

but Promises...

....and it has been counted,

that throughout the whole of the bible

we are offered,

not one,

not two,

but Three Thousand Five Hundred And Seventy Three Promises...

Maybe time to trade the Fairytale,

for the Faithfulness

of God

+

"We have been given exceedingly great and precious promises"

2 Peter 1:4

twinkle twinkle...

+

True

We are

but "little stars"

Which twinkle for awhile

Then are gone...

...But oh how our Shining

Arrests Man's Gaze

Draws his focus

And causes him

To Look Up

To 

Heaven

+

"Arise, Shine, for your light is come, and the Glory of the Lord is Risen upon you."

-Isaiah 60:1

Parted

+

We tend, too often, to fixate and focus

on external obstacles

and affronts to our Freedom,

Seemingly impassable Seas

Which stand between

Ourselves

and 

Promised Land...

While all along,

Only and Ever,

It is the Red Sea Within

Which needs to be

Parted.

+

"Be Strong and Very Courageous."

-Joshua 1:6

Lift II

+

...And the tell-tale glow

Saturates the Sky

An infusion of Day Dawning

Light Returning

Life Coming Back

Flooding Golden and Rose

The Heavens I look into

Lift into...

Beloved Wings

Which have borne me,

Bear me still,

Become me,

Live, Move, and have Their Being in me

Beautifully

Thus We fly

Indistinguishable

In unutterable sacred union

Headed into this horizon

With healing on Our Wings

For Such A Time As This

For Whosoever Will

For All who would know

The Incomparable Gift,

I Become

Flight...

+

"As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, 

spreading out its wings, taking them up,

carrying them on its wings, so the LORD alone led him."

-Deuteronomy 32:11

Redeemed.

+

We've domesticated the idea of Redemption,

Reduced the Lion of Judah into a whimpering puppy,

Done an unconscionable disservice to our charge, The Beloved,

The "Whosoever will",

dying for what Jesus died for,

The Domino Effect set off by the Cross,

The curse-crushing line that was drawn

in that Bloodied sand...

How dare we, who hold Truth, temper it,

We, who claim to speak for the King,

Corralling their Freedom,

Conditionally ladling out (if we even do that) this Tsunami of Salvation

with pithy talks on Sunday mornings

and impotent platitudes

which we've found more palatable, more plausible,

and preferred to

the Power of the Spirit

The Cross was not just for pretty.

Either It Is Finished,

or it is not.

Redemption is not just a feel-good thought,

It Is The Provision of Providence,

It is The Panacea we wield like a play-thing,

instead of the Living, Powerful, Double-Edged Sword that It Is.

Redemption is the Crux embodied in the Crucifixion,

as an oak tree in an acorn

as an atomic blast in a steel shell

It is the Apex of Creation

Redemption does not merely placate us

in the face of regrets and fall-out from our "best-laid-plans"

It does what our "filthy rags" could never do...

It Covers us

Triumphs over the wreckage

Transmutes trials

Trades us Beauty for Ashes

Is the Conduit which Carries us

Beyond the heart-rending, leveling losses...

Redemption Rebuilds, Restores, Reboots....

Redemption tangibly transforms our endings into Beginnings

Redemption rewrites the story,

Palpably,

Powerfully,

Redemption Changes Everything.

+

"I Got This."

-Jesus

"I AM The Resurrection and The Life."

-John 11:25

Born

"There is a Time to be Born"

-Ecclesiastes 3:2

+

To Make Do

Curled up in the corner

of this broken open cocoon

is No Longer For You

These Wings are not just for pretty

But to Fly

To Brave Many Worlds

To Bring The Beauty...

Not to sit in the stale air

of this once useful womb

But to Soar on Wind-of-the-Spirit

Trusting Deity's Masterful Design

To Expand now

Into All He Intended

Into More than this flimsy frame of reference

Allows you to Fathom

To Burst these barren boundaries

To See the walls blown off the Horizon

To Be Born into this Wide-Open

Come-What-May Sky,

And into Every Beloved Life

Longing

For

Rebirth

+

"Here am I, Send me"

"Go then, in this might of yours."

Isaiah 6:8, Judges 6:14

Lent

+

The Bated Breath

Between

Ashes

and

Beauty,

The Road

From

Razed

to Resurrection...

An exquisite Stillness belies

The Movement

Beneath the surface,

Behind the Scenes,

The Readying for Birth

Submerged, Momentarily,

In this baptismal

'In-Between',

I feel myself,

not free-floating,

but tenderly Held,

Embraced in His Arms,

Every muscle therein tensed

Tremulous,

Ready to Lift me

From Lent,

To Life

+

"I Am the Resurrection and the Life."

-John 11:25

Exhale

+

We inhale ... what?

Air,

Food,

Sometimes Each Other...

What are we Exhaling to a World

Longing for Resuscitation?...

What you Inhale

Is what you will Exhale...

Let It Be a Sweet Breath

A Breeze of Benediction

Blowing on the Smoldering Coals of this Creation,

Bestowing Blessing,

Bellowing the Beloved

Back into Beautiful Flame...

+

"Awaken, North Wind, and Come, Oh South...

Breathe on this Garden

That its spices may flow out."

Song 4:16

Bleed

+

Blood Pushing, Pulsing,

Engorging 

Bones, 

Body,

Muscles no longer atrophied

But Warrior, and Ready,

Steeled to the core

Stallions ready to Run

Determined in their stride

Filled with Iron

Arms that bend bows of bronze

Taut, Tempered

In Fire not of this world

But found in The Deepest Heart of God

Burning

Mercilessly,

Mercifully...

Eyes Ablaze with this Flame,

Like her LORD's,

Just Exactly like her LORD's...

Hind's feet headed for craggy, impossible,

Unspoiled High Places

Utterly Insurmountable...

...And Yet...

And Yet,

She Will Stand

And See

From those Conquered Summits

All that was Beyond

this laughably brief Sojourn...

A million years hence,

This speck of existence

Will be but a drop of her Blood

Swimming in the current of His

The moment she was part of 

The Transfusion

Into a Beloved World

Whose heart

had gone cold

+

"I have Loved you with an Everlasting Love...Come from the four winds,

Oh Breath and Spirit,

And Breathe upon these slain,

That they may Live."

-Jeremiah 31:3, Ezekiel 37:9

Lifted II

~~

Wings tightly folded, far too long,

now stretching

 spreading, 

soaking in Sun...

Suspended Animation

in this Moment Between

Broken Life

and Breaking Dawn...

as this once fearful fledgling

bravely bares herself,

lifts her face,

 to meet His Shining,

and with all her still-water-soul,

beautifully reflects 

her Beloved's Light

Thus Illumined,

Thus Lifted,

she unfolds to Him,

feels His Arms Underneath,

Beautiful Buoyancy,

Rapturous Rise,

For such a time as this,

Together,

They Fly...

~~

"Rise up, My love, My fair one..."

Song 2:10

Lifted

~ ~ ~

When you look back

See a Life Lived --

Not tethered to transient, untenable illusions,

Man's measuring sticks

That shackle you in the shallows,

But Winged

And Wide-Eyed

Moved by The Immovable,

The Immortals

Let not gravity have the last word,

You who were fearfully and wonderfully formed

For Flight

Re-Find your Belonging -- 

Not to the base elements around you,

But as The Beloved

Keep company with The Angels,

The Awakened,

The Lovers

And Be Lifted

~ ~ ~

"They shall mount up with wings as eagles..."

-Isaiah 40:31

Brushstrokes.....

* * *

I see only a small, very very tiny, 

Infinitesimal corner

of The Painting

and dance myself to exhaustion

trying to understand The Whole

and move accordingly...

Instead,

Let me dance with The Painter Himself

Slow, Soft, Fluid,

and So Very Close...

Moving in union with The One

Who holds the canvas,

Who created all color,

In Whose Arms I am the brush

with which He makes

such beautiful

Brushstrokes

* * *

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

Lean not on your own understanding,

In all your ways acknowledge Him,

He will smooth your paths."

-Proverbs 3:5,6

Love

+

Bloodied Broken Prodigal Heart

Having gambled away

Every Grace

Every Good Gift Given,

Left Empty

Razed

Unrecognizable

Except

To a Father

Whose Heart bred this one

Bled for this one

Bore, in Agonizing Union

Every Blow

Each Abuse

The Crucifixion of Unbearable Betrayal...

In a show of Unprecedented Mercy,

Of Unbelievable, Astounding Grace

He tenderly takes up

My wasted Judas heart

Claims it as His own

Sees the treasure beneath the ruins

He unearths it

all of it

the excruciating pain

the paralyzing sorrow

the utterly undone-ness of it all...

And Instead

Buries it, absorbs it, into His very own Breast

Broods over it

and again, Breathes into it, 

the ancient In The Beginning words, 

"Let There Be..."...

Willing it to Live Again

Readying it
for

Resurrection

+

"All Things New"

-Revelation 21:5

Wet

* * *

...Right under your nose

Right Beneath Your Feet,

Tapped

Percolating up to the surface

of this once dry desert

wetting your ground again

trickling around your feet

Springs Surfacing

There, all along...

Around your ankles now

Flowing Again...

Swirling around

Your waist

Your torso...

And now you swim

and float

and are carried

Looking Up

You Smile again,

As you are Born

away,

to

All Things New...

* * *

"Joy and Gladness will be found therein,

Thanksgiving and the voice of melody"

-Isaiah 51:3

The Walk

+

Sometimes I think
He's not as task oriented

as we've made Him out to be...

Sometimes I wonder

if He just wants

to take our hand

and enjoy a stroll,

Maybe He gets tired too

and wants to simply

sit a spell,

and share a little beauty,

then to stroll some more...

not to arrive anywhere

in particular,

but just for the joy

of The Walk

+