Sunday, November 9, 2008

Maybe the greatest lie we deign to tell ourselves is that
We are not alone.
We are a community, all the same at the core.
We want the good to prevail, the bad to leave us in peace.
We walk our paths hand in hand with each other
Into the sun, into grace, into whatever we think awaits us.
I think God puts on the porch light
And waits quietly at the end for each of us,
Watching that journey as we fall apart and pick up
And walk tripping and sobbing to the end where we collapse
On the steps so glad to have made it after so much
Pain and disturbance.
Our troubled souls gasping for air
And our knees scraped and bleeding…
What we find at that point is not that we have made it there
Together.. hand in hand..
Dreams in our head still intact
We are laying down our sorrow and picking up
Our guns of righteous truths and pointing them
At the first sign of movement coming up from behind.
We’ve just been there and we don’t want to share this
Grace with anyone unless they can fight it from
Our hands and collect it for their own.
We tumble into grace alone, feeble and drained from
The road and no longer reaching for each other.
Life isn’t kind.

This has nothing to do with God.
Nothing to do with our ability to be faithful to Him
To ourselves or to each other,
It’s what we have been made to live
Here on this earth.
Every man for himself
Everyone a powerful outcast.
The path is narrow and our hearts secluded.
Everyone knows the right way to get there
And no one can agree.

I won’t trouble you if you won’t trouble me.

When the door to God’s house is wrenched
Open by our scar knuckle hands
We stare at His face and our fears
Troubles
Anger
Blasphemies
They color our skin and slide
Free from our tongues.
The truth is not that hard to imagine.
God loves no matter what..
Feel free to speak your mind, defend your stance
Scream your pain
Tell him how unfair it was
Speak the doubts you dared
He’ll never cast you out, who else can you
Turn to after everyone you’ve ever known
Has turned away from you,
Powerful outcast?
There will be no judgment, redemption.
He resents nothing and you know no need
To be forgiven.

Sit by the fire, he will always let you in.

Silence is his way of letting you work it out
Rocking in your chair staring
Into the red orange white of fire’s promises
Brambles in your hair and dirt on your face
He will ask you after a time what you thought
Of the world while you were here.

You’ll say it was unfair, cold, hurtful.
You’ll say you loved it with all of your heart.

He’ll ask you what you thought of the people
You encountered on your path?

You’ll say they broke you, abandoned and tortured.
You’ll say you miss them with all of your heart.

He’ll ask you why you came alone.

You’ll say no one stayed by your side. No one.
You’ll say you are tired of all these tears.

He’ll ask you follow when you can.

You’ll sit by the fire all alone, crying the bitter tears
You never thought you’d know again.

Until the door opens and the next one tumbles in and
Sees in you the God they’ve been seeking
On their path.
My God is a man, clean and quiet.
a calm eye to my storm.
He is not anything like me
this is why I know him
don't fear him.
I don't care for anything else.

We are each the powerful outcast, each the seeker,
Each the God the other needs to understand them.
we need someone who listens
Stands by our side
Someone who chooses us above everyone else.


Come to me, before I get so lost
That all I have is to call it the end.

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