January 2010
47 posts
boards & crosses
Waves are created from winds that surge from 4000 miles away. So when they emerge from the blue depths they are tired and want to rest-this is why they reach for the shore. Surfers it seems cheer them on in their journey as they await there homecoming. They cheer them on as they play and run with them to the shore sometimes holding hands as they crash and let out a final gasp. I was on a board...
“the stars are like neighbors to one another-each helps the other strengthen the...”
– hildegard von bingen
a poem-im gonna sit
old eyes
I was sitting talking with a friend I hadn’t seen in years and we began to reminisce in an effort to catch up. There is something about placing yourself. Trying to describe how you came to where you are, how you are relating to the world now that you are here and what ventures are to come…places you in a way that observes the moments of the present with some real interest.
Today for...
“Every teacher of exegesis has guidelines of methods for students, some...”
– walter brueggemann
i think poems are better said outloud-trust
“You’ve dreamed a thousand dreams none seem to stick in your mind, two points for...”
– guster
james || first
The first anything is exciting: the first date, the first big move, the first time you try to shoot a spider off the refrigerator with your first bee-bee gun. The genesis of any thought, as cloudy as it may be, comes loaded with excitement and energy foreign often to the rest of life. I sat with a friend today and we shared some time exploring art and concept and how things move from idea to...
singular moments
Sometimes you feel as if the moments you invest heart and soul into are but fading blips in a world where sonar is all but forgotten. I know nothing about sonar or the present day satellites that shift information from the ground to the sky into a cockpit of a jet flying mach 3, but I do know something about what makes up time and that the rapid singular events of our lives need context lest they...
“we find ourselves caught up in the story of Jesus, by the events of his life,...”
– tom wright
history
Is it that God orders history or that God’s history orders us? This question assumes that there is a God, first of all, and that this God is interested in the events of the shared human experience. I guess my mind begins there because most of what lies outside of these assumptions is a God whom I am uninterested in. It is the god of the dualists that see the scared as something devoid of the...
resting
it is joy but is also sorrow in these moments
for so long it seemed as if it was me
turning the clock of lived history
hoisting time as a sail held by gromets
it is joy because you are wind and rudder
this ship this boat this boy is breathing new air
with a head up to the horizon i steady a glare
as you invade my course i begin to shutter
becasue it is sorrow in this loss of control
sails...
writing
the amount of thoughts are overwhelming
the time it takes is never ending
but here i go yet again God to see
what it is you want to call out of me
will it make sense will everyone know
how far and fast your love will show
grace in this world and the one to come
or are words falling far from
the epic sweep of your kingdom
you are word made flesh
but our words get so emeshed
LORD we are...
shaving
bearded wandering only go so far
when your done covering up your scars
its a cover masking your deepest ways of knowing
and once exposed your non-verbals are left showing
the world a naked innocent honest praise
so unfamiliar that mirrors cant make sense of a gaze
its like your characator is now left behind
and your left with a sense you need to find
a new you or new ground to build...
playing
when clouds roll and darkness tames
our thoughts and meager games
may your light play in our day
through clouds on hill in every way
giving us life to mark the new
breath that we each awake to
in time and with us inside
we look to see its you we find
in everything and in every way
may your light play in our day
waking
c’mon an see me through
when i wake and my thoughts are far from you
bring me the rest i need to live in your space
opening these eyes to awaken to grace
let love decide for me the things to do
even if today that means only a few
you know and are the the rhythm of the days
so mark the highs and lows so i know my place
and now as i stand and stretch to meet the day anew
rest my soul...
thin place
There’s this guy I have been reading for years and the first of his books I read he talked about the interlocking of heaven and earth as the reign of God. This is the thing that Jesus was says was happening in his actions in the world. God’s reign God’s heaven was in some way embodied and shown to us in Jesus’ life death and resurrection. Jesus’ way is where heaven...
“You almost seem to will illness and death to walk among us. The more I know you...”
– john goldingay
“Their intimacy flooded. Love like a tide either advances or retreats, Maytree...”
– annie dillard
walking & riding on things
Went for a few hour walk today. But before I pushed off from home I got some shorts on. Love those things. So I think I might wear them more-since it is winter now. I grabbed my backpack too which I also intend to wear more. My walk started out toward the mountains. I wasn’t sure if I was going to get to the mountains and after getting about halfway there I aimed my pitter-patter toward...
beyond you
“there is a hole in the neighborhood where the shadows fall”
– jon foreman
this is what that is
It takes a certain kind of person to say what it is you know to be true with the kind of language that makes you feel as if you are hearing it for the first time. Your world will either scatter or in some beautiful way begin to be put back together. I was back in Lansing not to long ago and ran into a friend I had not seen for some time. She and I had preaching class together and a number of...
“but lo, thou requirest truth in the inward parts: and shalt make me to...”
– psalm 51.6
“The sense of this utterance, in which we are participants, we preachers, is that...”
– walter brueggemann
odor of your life
When I left for Michigan back in December I was trying to pack pretty light. I had the teamwork back jammed full of books and underwear and a laptop case I was carrying separate. I thought through what I was going to take for nearly a month to be spent in the wintery wonderland that is west Michigan. I remember holding my deodorant in my hand and thinking-to bulky. So once I got to my parents...
this world is mechanized, and i dont want to...
like its their job
I was running today and among the many things I saw was a street. I didn’t run down this street I only looked down and noticed it being mostly empty, not a car in sight. Then I looked up and was taken back by a row of pine trees marking both sides of the street. All of the palms were bending at the exact same angel-up and to the right. It was like they were bending with the curve of the...
then dad said I was an artist
I can’t get this thought out of my head and it has been several weeks at this point. I was thinking out about life and the gospel and love as my dad and I stood at the kitchen counter. I realize that many of the memorable conversations I have had with my parents have taken place here as we snacked on the things my mom will left out purposefully so that my dad or I will take care of the leftovers....
paradox
This isn’t what I was intending to write about but it was something that hit me the other day at about four in the morning when talking with a friend. I exclaimed that I was a walking paradox. I guess I wasn’t quite sure how that was true but I think I may have thought that I wanted that to be true about myself. If I were to be a walking paradox I probably would have characteristics...
“powerful figures at the apex of the empire and its subordinate institutions are...”
– richard horsley (religion & empire)