Monthly Archives: March 2017

With Hope and Trust: A Psalm

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With Hope and Trust

When the Lord restored the nations back to Himself, there were no longer families selling their children as slaves so the rest of the family could eat and be clothed.  There would be feasts on the table, meat in bellies.   No longer did sickness have the last word.  No longer did skin color, sexual attraction, or gender determine treatment or opportunities.  Voices mattered.  There were no oil spills contaminating drinking water or ocean homes.  If there was a drought, starvation didn’t reign.  Countries helped one another regardless of religion, political beliefs or allegiances.  We pitched in because you, God, you created them too.  In that day, we all took a Sabbath.  We filled the streets with celebration and joy.  Laughter could be heard in the schools – no sick moms at home, no bruises needing to be covered, and food wasn’t an all-consuming thought.

Praise the Lord!  Praise the Lord! We would shout, in our hearts – with our lips, day and night.

Yet, our hearts ache.  We live in no such time.  Children and families starve as their governments keep out aid — their cries not heard.  Greed rules our hears without us even knowing it – no other time in history have there been so many human slaves and yet we protest not for the children who picked the cotton, wove the clothes that we wear on our back, on our children’s back in the name of fashion, in the name of my finances, in the name of convenience.

Give us eyes to see our neighbors.  Give me eyes to see how I’m dependent on my brothers and sisters across the world in China, in Vietnam, in Malaysia.  May I see them as you see them.  May their tears become my tears until your restoration comes.  Direct our paths.  Turn our groans into chants of restoration and songs of joy.  Only you can change our ways.  Hurry.  Come Lord Jesus.  You are our only hope.  Save us from ourselves.

For Danielle, Part Two

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Lamentations: A Protest

You created her in her mother’s womb.
You know every hair on her head.  Every thought before she thinks it.
Nowhere can she go where your Spirit isn’t with her.
And yet, you’ve turned your back.
You haven’t spoken.
You’ve said nothing.
Where do you hide?
Under a rock?
In a sea volcano?
On Pluto?
Where have you gone?
Let yourself be found, damn it!
You haven’t been found in the chemotherapy – growth continued.
You weren’t found in surgery because the cancer had already spread to her
lungs.
At every turn she has gotten your back.
Why do you hide?

You’ve changed her children’s laughter into tears and worse,
Instilled fear.
You’ve stolen their childhood.
Making slime is no longer just making slime.
It now holds the possibility of being the last time to make slime, to pour
the borax with my mother.
You have them wondering, will this be the last?  Will she die?
Do not leave them motherless.

Her enemy surrounds her.  She cannot fight.
But you, great God, you make the Earth revolve around the sun, year after
year.
You raise the sun in the east and set it in the west.  Daily.
Surely a glance from you and she would be healed.
Do not disappoint.
Do not leave us broken-hearted.
Allow us to feast on fondue and smores over an open fire.
Allow us to make a toast in Big Sur shouting of your goodness and grace
for more life.
Show your face.
Heal her your servant, your daughter.

March 2017

First Fake Catch

For Danielle

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In Uncertain Times

Praise be to the Father who created me in my mother’s womb.

Praise be to the Father who created her in her mother’s womb.

Praise be to the God of all creation – the eucalyptus with its smooth body, the skunk with its smell

To Him be praised, all glory and might.

The whole universe belongs to you, Lord.

From the gaseous core of the Earth to the galaxy yet discovered,

You know it all.

You reign overall.

You, Lord, are gracious and righteous, full of compassion.

Be compassionate to us now.

Give us time.

Give us healing.

She loves you.

She sits on a rock, fishing pole in hand, delighting in the fish, the water, the waiting.

She serves you, with smiles, with joy, with graciousness to others and kindness knit in her being.

She loves her husband well.

She raises her children to fear you, to love you.

Do not bring about their doubt.  Do not give them reason for apathy.

Answer the cries of our heart.

Answer the needs of her body.

Only you, O Lord, have the power to do this work.

Only you can stop the progression of disease.

Extend your hand.  Extend your sovereign grace.

Do not turn your back.

Shine your face upon us,

her,

her community,

Your people.

May we sing your praises of healing.

May we rejoice in your miracle.

You brought your people from slavery, out of Egypt.  You parted seas.  You raised the dead.

You are a good and gracious God, communing with us through Your Spirit.

Show your face.

Give us time with her on Earth, Lord.

Give her kids time.

All glory and honor and praise.

To the God of Israel who created me, who created her, in our mother’s womb –

Shine your face upon us.

Give us reason to praise You with our lips, our hearts.

Dry our tears.

Soothe our anxieties.

Take this iniquity.

Cure us from our apathy, our feeling that you don’t care.

You alone, God, are good and holy.

In sickness, in health, in joy and in pain, You reign.

Forever and ever.

Amen.