Touch deep unto deep,
And scour my spirit
Of all derision.
Cleanse me of all
Circular thoughts
Of piercing despair.
Awaken my soul
To trust beyond reason.
To rest between the lines.
Settle me in the crux
Of Your mystery,
Grace and truth.
Could Jesus have succumbed to a Charlie Brown attitude?
The Scribes and the Pharisees often would hold the football for him to kick.
Jesus never attempted the running toward the football held by the Lucy’s of the time. Instead he magically switched places with the cunning and held the football with the laces out.
He switched places with questions. He asked a lot of them. He asked the lot of them.
He didn’t do it for kicks. I don’t believe he would have pulled the ball away either.
His goal was to allow them to kick it and kick it through the uprights. His questions were always leading questions to aim the kickers to the truth. That was the “kicker” always, to place-kick the truth through the uprights.
Jesus gave the opportunity for the Scribes and Pharisees to see themselves in between the goal posts of false piety and humble confession.
When I am feeling like Charlie Brown at least I know Jesus will hold the ball still and reveal some truth about who I am. He holds the questions steady and an honest answer will kick it through the uprights.
John 8:1-12 is a good example.
Lucy, Charlie Brown, Jesus…which one would you wish to be like?
Are stones for throwing?
I threw them
at miniature plastic tanks and army men.
The images on CNN framed grown men
heaving stones at armor and assault rifled soldiers.
We were boys once.
Mr. Johnson across the street taught me
to search for rolling rocks.
The roundest rocks would roll
all the way down and around the corner.
Gravity and grace on asphalt.
One of my older brothers showed me
how to skip stones at Hogset Lake.
Flat stones were prized skippers.
Side armed flings placed abbreviated touch points
across the water and we counted.
The gravity has weighted the stones
in my hand and I stand.
Shoulders slumped and a loose grip
on judgments to be thrown.
Will I be the first to cast one?
Or will I let it roll or skip and wonder?
I would cast one for fear of being found out,
and Jesus would keep writing with his finger.
Would Jesus have stopped writing if they handed him their stones?
Gerald the Writer 