Tag Archives: despair

Sunday Psalm

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Could this be the end of reason?

Is the gun mightier than the sword?

Are discussions usurped by

polarized rigidity?

Shoot now, talk later.

Oh reason, have you aged out

of the system?

Why are we now reverting to loop-wholes

and holes through the body?

Where are the talking heads taking us?

Why do we know so much so quickly

that we don’t chew, but swallow

as fast as we can with lukewarm milk.

Come, let us reason together

when we can

where we can.

No one can fashion swords into

ploughshares in a day.

Let us exercise, pure and undefiled,

and exorcise our rights against humanity.

Lord God Almighty, revive hope.

Slip Knot

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They say tie a knot

and hang on.

He did and he

choked himself.

 

He prayed for a slip

of sorts, maybe Fruedian,

so someone might see.

Pulled tighter

 

maybe this ball of tension

will be easier to swallow.

His throat had seized,

not the day

 

but the disparity

of what was and what

could have been.

His own finger and thumb

 

pinched his Adam’s apple.

The forbidden fruit

stuck in his throat.

He swallowed it whole

 

and it lodged tight,

like a sorrow suspended,

it blocked both passages

of air and water.

 

Bulimic finger pointing

and wretched denial

heaved up nothing.

Rotten to the core

 

it sat and the seeds

were insulated, unbroken.

Would just a bite been better,

quickly chewed,

 

never to touch taste buds?

A piece of skin in the belly

for a three day stay

to be purged

 

through body and blood.

He drank some wine

to wash his sorrow down

and a piece of bread made it palpable.

 

Look Both Ways, But By All Means, Look.

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No parent wants their child

to play in traffic.

This parent didn’t know

so many children are the traffic.

Women and children

jammed in a highway of hell.

 

The wheels of hollow men merge,

spinning faster in banal queues.

Oppressor and oppressed

become shells, abandoned cars.

No body wins.

 

It is a thoroughfare of despair

as booths collect their tolls

for a way that leads to death.

Sex in a six lane slab

stalled and overheated.

 

Victims lay on their horns

which only whimper

while men keep

checking under the hood.

 

 

Oh my God,

what have we done?

When did humans

become traffic?

 

Last night I attended the above event. But I was broken once again over our humanity. At one point the hope in this seemingly hopeless pang was broadcast and historic names were dropped…Moses, Abraham Lincoln, William Wilberforce, Martin Luther King. All were men of prayer and placed their hope in God. As people of faith we can put dents in this. Let us continue to hope in God and become vehicles of hope for the oppressed. Thank you Lindsey for passion that grew into compassion that grew into action. My prayer is that it is highly contagious.

These are the last four lines of T.S.Elloit’s The Hollow Men

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

To which I say…It doesn’t have to end this way.
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; he has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” Isaiah 61:1-3a

 

Redemption: The Hope for Transformation.

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Abused freedom holds within in it the seed of redemption.

Depravity holds within it the seed of redemption.

Redemption’s necessity is only because things go awry, mostly humans go awry.

I think it was in Ravi Zacharias’ book Why Jesus that one communist/atheist country is allowing Christianity in to quell the instability and in fighting. The concept of redemption was the catalyst they put their stock in to stabilize their country.

The more that time goes by, the tighter I embrace the concept of redemption. Without it humanity is in utter despair; not to mention utter disrepair…I am humanity. Christianity’s unique element is redemption. The absolute center of the faith is the hope of redemption. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ continues to echo off the mountains, even though the characteristic of echoes are their fading decibels.

I recall a time in church years back where a young lady was singing “I Know My Redeemer Lives”. This girl started the song with the charisma of Nicole C. Mullen herself (The artist that sent this song to the top of the charts.) and as she continued she either forgot some lyrics or went off key and she struggled to get back on track and ended up stopping. She apologized. I shouted from the back “No! It’s okay. Keep going.” This was in a pretty subdued church where cat calls rarely or never happened. My passion got the better of me because of the huge epiphany. She was singing about redemption and I saw that God could even redeem her situation. He already had, in my heart anyway.

Is there a situation that you feel is irredeemable? Let me throw some hope your way. Redemption is more than an idea. It is emanating from the Christ. Jesus oozes restoration. Without Jesus the redeemer I am a man most miserable.

This song remains one of my favorites and gains more depth as my earthly journey continues…

The Way I See Sometimes. It Ain’t Pretty.

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I misplaced my rose colored glasses.

The world is in a hand basket on its way somewhere.

The world is all that it is cracked up to be.

Cracks, cracks, cracks, and the humans are racing

to tape and mud and sand and prime.

 

He’s got the whole world in his hands

and I wonder if it is getting a little too heavy.

God so loved that an only Son came

to carry the weight on his shoulders.

It broke both of their backs along with their hearts.

 

At times all I can see is from Solomon’s perspective.

Oh, I am not wise. I am not even that smart.

If you will please open your Bible to the book of Ecclesiastes (Insert preacher voice)

you will see it is not a song of Solomon.

It almost sounds like a solemn dirge though.

 

I think maybe Solomon, for a moment misplaced his glasses too.

All that talk about vanity and vexation.

“To everything there is a season,

a time for every purpose under heaven.”

It is under heaven alright, because the list gets heavy.

 

Death isn’t rosy.

Pluck is a take away.

Thou shall not kill.

We all have our breakdowns.

Even Jesus wept.

Mourn.

Casting stones.

No hugs.

Loss.

Throwing away.

Tearing, rending.

Shhhh.

Hate? Really?

War. What is it good for?

 

Okay, okay, those are only the dark seasons.

Did you forget that my Elton John rose colored specks is missing?

Maybe I should have my U.V. shades on anyway under all this sun;

The kind people wear to funerals dressed like men in black.

 

If all I see is reactive attachment why would I want a clear view, really.

If all I observe is moral breakdown and despair, reserve me a padded room.

If all I blankly stare at is dis-ease and patients while I put a compress on compassion, please forgive me.

If all I look upon are sacred hearts broken beneath a cross, go hug your mother while you can.

 

It’s all under the sun and it is vexing.

Faith, hope, and love are naked without sunscreen.

Without Son glasses I squint and see men walking about like trees.