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| BE ENCOURAGED |
Sadness shakes him,
stakes him to the ground.
His eyes yearn toward home,
when out of the mists
comes a vision
for eyes
and spirit.
A drapery lifts
and Daniel's knees collapse.
He is touched
and stands;
He stutters and a touch
gives him utterance;
weak knees tremble
and a touch makes
him strong.
Beyond our eyes
is a realm
we cannot comprehend.
Powers and principalities
play tug of war
above our heads,
pulling strings
and fomenting wars.
Though we can't see it,
it is there.
What you do and say
impacts this invisible
world.
Acts of faith
are stronger than you know:
disarming enemies
and empowering good.
Like touching Power
to give or take
strength.
Though you may never see
results,
it matters.
Though you feel cut off
and useless,
you matter.
Keep up the good fight.
The garden abuts the cemetery
as spring shadows winter.
The tomb was in a garden
where Jesus was laid,
but only for a moment
did He rest there.
When despair came walking,
head down and heart dragging,
stunned and shattered
by the violence
of recent days,
the body was gone.
Mary saw angels
through swimming eyes
who questioned her,
then a Gardener flipped the switch
by speaking her name.
At the bottom of a stinking pit,
mired with disillusion
and fragmented hope
a light bloomed.
Early in the morning
when it was still dark,
in a garden graveyard
death imploded.
Creation energy
churned and stirred
atoms
bringing life to that
which had died.
Resurrection power.
"Why are you crying?"
the Gardener asks,
where have your hopes
been buried?
What scars have lace-hardened
your heart?
"Who are you looking for?"
What do you long to believe?
What moments strike you
to the marrow
with aching Beauty?
What Truth do you yearn for?
Will you believe
the gaping maw of the tomb
is the strongest power?
Or will you heed the Gardener
whose Goodness
conquers death?
Will you recognize Him
when He speaks
your name?
*Next to You, God,
our filth is exposed
in blinding light.
Our wrongs
pile up
in mountainous heaps.
No one
is clean before You.
Even our most righteous acts
are marred with self-interest.
As individuals
and as a whole,
we have failed You
again and again.
Can I, like Daniel
pray "we"
as I glimpse the fractures
in the world today?
Can I identify with the oppressed
and oppressor alike?
Are all wrongs
my wrongs?
**Jesus - clean as a whistle -
dives into the cleansing water
before exiling Himself
to the burning sand
for forty days.
***Another time He prays
over Jerusalem,
likening His affection
to a hen protecting her chicks.
He prayed "we."
He prays "we" today.
How shall we live
in times
of hostility?
In times of blame
and shame?
By emulating Christ
and identifying
with a broken world.
By praying "we"
for all shivering souls.
*Daniel 9:1-19
**Matt. 3:13
***Matt. 2:3-37
