grace & the status quo #6 (john 1 & 3)

by night he
came
looking for answers
to You
healing sick people...
freeing
the demonized...
preaching a good news version
of the torah
no one had heard for a
very long time.

You spoke of the YaHWeH-Spirit
leading
You & anyone else who would
listen...
who would obey
His Voice.

YaHWeH's Spirit blowing like the
wind
&
You elevated like
Moses' brass snake
giving LIFE
to anyone who would really
SEE You.

like all of us
accustomed to the status quo
he did not understand.

grace & the status quo #5 (john 1 & 3)

Lord,
from the beginning
where You
were busy making
everything from
nothing...
grace in You has always
reigned.

so invisible is the
touch
of your grace
that we mistake
luck
skill
intelligence
(usually our own)
for it.

we forget that
no luck
nor skill
nor intelligence
of our own has ever made
one quantum of
light...
neither have we ever been able
to push back any
evil
for long at all.

grace & the status quo #4 (john 1 & 3)

never static, Your
grace
moves to destroy
all
the death & hatred
we accept every day.

our normal...
is what grace seeks to
destroy
so
life
can break through.

You shatter us, Lord,
then...
You remake us on
the inside
&
out.

grace
disturbs each
&
all of us!

grace & the status quo #3 (john 1 & 3)

"how can this be?"

this is
an old question
to the new
grace
offered to us
in Yourself.

a theologian like Nicodemus
totally
missed it...
how could he not?
nothing like You,
Lord,
had ever come so close to us
before.

you were the one-and-only-Emmanuel...
the God-with-us
Who shattered each
&
every
status quo we had ever lived
through.

You were the One God
Who always accepted our
worship
but never demanded it!
instead...
what You asked of us
was
a denying of self,
a shouldering of
the grace-cross,
a walking of the difficult grace-road...
with You.

grace is
tough!

tougher than
sin & death.

grace & the status quo #2 (john 1 & 3)

the noise of their
battle
echoes each morning
of our lives.

the sound of
grace
fighting the various status quos
of our lives.

even as the sun
rises
to end nights
reign...
so grace rises
battle-ready to deal death to
death...
to free the
captive...
to give a new song
to the
hopeless
all around us.

grace & the status quo (john 1 & 3)

grace
is always the deadly
enemy
of every status quo
in the here
in the now of our lives.

until we find You waiting
for us
at the end of this life,
Lord,
every status quo attacks
grace
with a deep hatred.

in You, Lord,
grace came walking into
our lives
raising dead people...
offering deep freedom to
those held captive by every
dark force.

in You, Lord,
grace became
GRACE
shattering all the
old sleepy
deadly comforts the
status quo
offers.

where is Jesus? (john 1) #2

Lord,
you gave us the
pattern
for every one of our
conversations...
our dialogues...
when You came to us as
God's Living WORD...
God's conversation
with us.

to enter into
real conversation...
to truly
participate
in authentic dialogue is
to follow Your pattern, Lord,
in looking for us
long before we look for You.

You bring the unseeable
YaHWeH into our view.

God's words
burn
their way
deep
into our hearts
by You BEING His WORD!
we could SEE God's WORD sweat
weep
rage
&
raise the dead!

in You, we could see
our God as
active
living
never content with
the status quo.

where is Jesus? (john 1)

let's keep our dialogue open...

why?

Jesus is in every dialogue...
whenever
we welcome Him
and
even before.

He is Himself
the beginner of the
greatest
dialogue ever…
the WORD
becoming one of
us
so we could hear
see
touch
&
even taste Him.

hell is...

hell is
to fall so deeply into
myself
that I lose all connection
with You, Lord…
and
every other living being…
to become
opaque...
so dangerous to every other
living thing
that hell is Your last
best effort
at saving the best
from the
worst.

heaven is...

heaven is
NOT
just fun & games...

heaven means
peeling back all my
layers
so as to be more & more
transparent…
naked
in Your Very Presence,
Lord.

growing up...

growing up is
becoming free
from my old self
NOT
disconnected
but rather free
from the need to be
first
or to be in power…
in control…

growing up
is what You showed us,
Lord.

everyday
You followed Your Father
no matter the cost...
this is what
either
small children
or
grown up adults
do!

life is…

life is
being connected
to You, Lord…
to others
and
finally to myself…
in such a
way
that i grow up

flower girl (from a photo taken in the UK)

always
looking for flowers
to pluck
to make a bouquet
fresh
for mommy,
daddy, mamma, meme,
naomi, auntie, a papa…
or
whoever is near.

i think she sees them
in her head long
before
her eyes rest on them.

then all that is necessary
is finding the place
her heart
has already seen
so
she can do the thing
her heart
has already done…
give itself
away.

so real
are her flower-visions
that her little sister has
learned
to see with the same
eyes.