#64

I'm going to mourn with you, sister,
And pray for a miracle bigger than
The sad circumstances of your story.

There's a candle at the Communion Table,
The holy altar within our home
And I'm praying for your soul's eternity.

I'm praying for your surgery, sure,
And the relationships intertwined in
Your home I can't understand.

My very being longs for you
To find the Family of the Saints
And the True Lover of your Soul.

I mourn your baby never born
And pray this tragedy
Brings your entire household home.

#63

How to listen to
those with no voice?
Quiet your mouth,
your soul,
your endless idol of productivity.
Stop and
look around.
Is everyone in the crowd
around
more like you than not alike?

Venture to the places you
deem dangerous,
for there you cannot
help but hear Wisdom:
She cries in the streets.
Wisdom is a woman,
even the wise philanderer scribed.
Wisdom is being silenced.
Lies are louder, more comfortable
more welcoming.

And yet,
your comfort and easy road
lead to death.
The crying woman is trying
to tell you of a better way,
but if you judge the skin she wears
you will not hear
and you cannot listen.

#62

In January 2019,
 our son created a game we still refer to as "bookshelf".

He systematically removes each book from the bookshelf. It's pretty simple.

I use the present tense because he's playing "bookshelf" right now.

Tonight, he reorganizes our theology shelf.
The dining room floor is covered with stacks of
hymnals, Bibles, commentaries and the like.
The made-sacred texts of different denominations mix in with educator self-help stories. Ancient classics piled with the freshly printed.

Luther and Nouwen get cozy in one stack.
Claiborne, Keller and Augustine in another.
But even then,
our book shelf is mostly stocked with the ideas of white men, living or dead.

It feels like the world is playing "bookshelf" right now,
with sermon notes and receipts flying out all over the place
and craving the words of the unheard.

#61

When I can only
Hear those like me, around me,
I lose the story.

#60

Before you try to tell me your position, stop and listen/
You're so busy using your voice that "Pro-choice is bad"/
You miss the lives impacted, ignoring children women had/
"Pro-life?" Great! Welcome a foster child into the home you own/
"Pro-life?" Yes! Shelter the alien seeking a home/
"Pro-life?" Preach it! Bless the families craving resources/
"Pro-life?" Feed and clothe, the homeless shooting drugs alone/

No woman chooses surgery just for the hell of it/
Don't make abortion illegal, make it irrelevant/
Listen to the women who are asking, no, telling/
Until equality is polity, the paucity's atrocity/
You're not really pro-life, but pro-control, pro-property/
The sanctity of life in utero is beautiful/
But loving the least is equally as dutiful/

I pray that my own babies would not have died in vain/
So hear me, evangelicals, our nation is in pain/
When you ignore the raped, the beaten, the escaped/
You reveal that sanctity is reserved for the saints/
When you chastise the teen, the illegal, the whore/
You value just the baby, nothing more/
Just try it on for size, see life through her eyes/
Is there hope within the Church or just bloody fetuses on signs?/

And when November calls, and you flood the polling stalls/
Think of her in the bathroom asking God what to do?/
If she has your number, maybe she'll ask you/
But if your daughter can't talk to you about sex/
I can tell you, Planned Parenthood is where she looks next/
And when that option is unlawful/
Oh sister, the outcomes are awful/

#59

In the beginning- WORD
Incarnation- WORD
Resurrection- WORD
Written to us- WORD
Returning glory- WORD
More than a slogan or a motto or a promise;
Not a prescription, regulation or practice.
Living.

Breathing.

Walked the world among us.

LIVING.

ACTIVE.

Transcending understanding. Upending oppression and possession
with confession leading to repentance for eternal satisfaction.

Bread.

Water.

Flesh at the table.
Come,
Feast,
all who are able
or be carried and healed.
Be married.
Be sealed.
There's wonder-working POWER every minute, every hour
from the start for your heart.
Listen now or listen later,
all will bow before the Savior
and its not about behavior.
Read the narrative, the arc
the WORD is light into the dark.
Hope and healing for the nations
an incarnate population.
There's timeless TRUTH and Glory
that's the WORD, the holy STORY.
Jesus Christ in every bar.


Creation. Redemption. Restoration.
Take it as a whole, the Gospel calls for transformation,
every tribe, every tongue,
every creed, every nation.
There is a better word:

Jesus Christ is Lord.