risk required

if i took a step toward that
i would have to be a brave man
real life doesn't come that easy
if i left behind a fear like this
i believe i'd be a glad man
but would they look at me the same

stepping out on that limb
is not just going to happen
risk is always required

safety is not security
surviving is not reviving
when your soul is slowly dying

requires risk to love for real
requires faith to get something better
requires change to beat the weather
whether you like it or not

lay down that fear
relax that grip
empty your hand if you want
to get a new hold on life

hold on to that neighbor
give more to that stranger
even die for your friends
there's still nothing higher

like it or not
there is risk required

the baptist

best man in the true wedding
among men and prophets none greater
John, fulfilled in diminishment
was that what made you greater?
love. for the Son, your cousin
eclipsed disciple's pride
the voice calling in the wilderness
leaps at the Bridegroom's sign
but still not beyond doubting
to ask, "are you the One"?
was that just ignorance speaking?
about how the Groom should be?
or was decreasing harder
than you expected it would be?
but the blind did see
and the lame men walked
so i'm betting joy leapt again inside
despite the death you faced
and the prison you were inside
another womb to exit unto life

on giving

I fear i am too detached from my giving,
for the people i give it to mostly give it away.
What good does that do me?
When i give to those
who give to those
who give to the needy,
am i really giving to the needy?
There's no human face on it.
I never see God do His work with it.
Oh, it's good that i give to those
who give to the needy,
for they do it better than i.
But it means more
when i give to a needy stranger
and look him in the eye.
Or even a needy friend,
if God is the reason why.
If i joyfully, faithfully fund the charities,
that's a good thing to be sure.
But that's not all
that the call to give is for.

i want

i want a new world

i want a new body

with better reasons to sing

i want a pure heart

one that doesn't feel the shame

of the weakness hiding in me

i want the strength to believe

and the vision to see

that i can share in that world

today

i want the patience to wait

and the mind to conceive

so this hope can overflow me

i want to see you

with my eyes not just my mind

i want to know you

with fingertips that are mine

i want forever

filled with possibilities

i want this tension

to be just a memory

i want you to teach me

how i really ought to be

who it is you're making me.

i want to look up

and love the people that i see

with the things you know they need

one year

one year,

sadness still.

that, too,

is good.

time passed,

laughing girl.

that, too,

is yours.

tears rise

as blood falls.

that, too,

does hurt.

grey skies,

hide sunrise.

that, too,

can heal.

deep vows,

embrace truth.

that, too,

is proof.

love lives,

death is dead.

that, too,

brings peace.

it's not fair

Ok, the last post was started out of frustration with the idea of fairness and became something rather different. I'm still irritated by "fairness" though. So i'm trying again...

I just don't see fairness as a very biblical, God-like concept, at least not in most pleas for it. "It's not fair" feels like selfishness well-disguised. It is "i deserve better" dressed up in the false humility of tolerance and equality. "Fair" is a word more meaningful in this world's economy than in God's economy. It is the failed law of "eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth" that need never touch the heart of the problem, the heart of us. It speaks always of shallow thinking or selfishness deeply buried.

Fairness is wholly empty of the sacrificial love and extravagant grace of God.

When i was younger, my siblings and i would whine, "it's not fair". My father's usual reply was the typical, "life's not fair." I, in the infinite wisdom of the adolescent, would always think, "but shouldn't we strive to make it fair?!" Now i know better. Fair would be a terrible thing for life to be, for in all fairness, we deserve nothing of the grace of God. The living root of true Justice is Love. Fairness is justice cut free of its living root. Fairness is a cold and loveless calculation. When we cry "it's not fair", we paste that calculation atop false assumptions about what we deserve to argue for the outcome we desire. And what outcome is that? Justification for our selfishness, either to share less of the bounty God has graciously and undeservedly given us or to covet what was graciously and undeservedly given to others.

Life is not fair. I am very glad for that.

phony shortcuts and cheap substitutes

seem to be all the deceiver ever offers
in the garden, in the desert,
in my head.
to Adam, to Christ,
to me.
One of us three always saw through it.
fairness is Justice writ shallow;
tolerance is nothing like Love.
self-glorification is but vaguely like Glory;
believing in oneself has never taught Faith.
power is only in what you will give;
what you can get will never plug the holes.
there is only one true Hope;
only Freedom in the strong grip of Grace;
only Beauty in the straight highways of the King.
the shortcuts are cliffs and mires;
the substitutes polished by the tyrant's slaves.
still, only One of us three always sees through it.