New(er) Poetry

Hello, friends, I haven't been inspired today in any particular direction, so I thought I'd share some of my more recent poems. I'll have to think how/when to post earlier work. I continue to find great joy in writing this way...I recently read that poems take us out of time for a little bit, much like the few hushed, warm days after a baby is born. What a lovely picture!

What Is It?

These shallow breaths are not

milk and honey I'd hoped for,

praying strength to spread

cream cheese on toast

what I'd planned.

Yet these rapid heartbeats burn

wisps of incense

in a place I am finding

is holy.

The smoke from your cloud today

singes my throat but this

manna strange somehow still

fills me.

                     -Winter 2012

Metamorphi–

This cocoon closes

bloody. I can't tell

what flows thick 

from these knuckles

banged senseless and

what seeps 

from your womb-walls,

hot-cradling me. 

                     -Spring 2012

I Have No Poems About Jesus

I realize this paging through my pittance of black pixels

strewn across white pages in hope

that some will take root.

I read of redemption, communion, the kingdom;

there is Moses, my father; no Rabbi in sight.

The New Jerusalem seems safer,

stained glass and sand sufficient.

No need to touch nail holes,

struggle to name the One

who offers flesh as food,

who tells me I must hate

the one who bore me

but who lets whores

kiss his feet before

he dies.

I have no place to lay His head.

I touch the hem of His garment for healing.

To get closer means His smell might

mingle with mine.

                                 -Summer 2012

  

The Pursuit of Happiness...

You know you are bored when you start watching documentaries you've never heard of. For fun. While knitting. Confession aside, while searching for something to help keep my sanity (and a pretty nifty scarf I'm making) going, I stumbled on the documentary Happiness Is (2009). 

To be honest, it wasn't the most inspiring or coherent piece of work I'd ever seen, but it was an intriguing premise. The filmaker, after leaving a career in the fashion photography world, decided to do a project exploring the third of Jefferson's "trinity of values:" the pursuit of happiness. Life and liberty are pretty self-explanatory, but what do people believe about our "right" to be happy in America?

Like many people in the film, I've recited the words many times but have never understood what they meant. What is it that we are supposed to be after anyway? Does it line up with what I know about the world? About God? 

The movie shared several interesting facts. One was on the entymology of the word itself. Happiness, it explained, comes from the word hap, which means chance or fortune. In other words, we are supposed to be pursuing what comes down to luck. Circumstances. The roll of the dice. Things falling into place so that we suddenly have what we want. 

They also explained that this idea of "favor" or "good circumstances=good life" has been and is manipulated over and over again for economic gain.

The most interesting story was that of Alfred P. Sloan, the CEO of General Motors at the time when the Model T was hugely popular. Up until his arrival on the scene, Ford Motor Co. had been operating on the assumption that you would buy an automobile and that it would last you for decades. Sloan's success came when he capitalized on the circumstantial nature of happiness. He began marketing a new model of car each year in order to make people unhappy with the car they already owned. His plan was brilliant, and he became a major competitor to Ford. 

So what does this all mean for us, I thought. As a follower of Jesus, does happiness fit in with the life I am called to lead? 

I've come to the decision that happiness, the kind that is tied to luck, tied to new purchases and the latest must-have invention is devoid of meaning. That was easy. What was harder for me to realize is that the pursuit of conditions conducive to happiness is also an empty path, one I often find myself wandering. 

Whether my husband is perfect, my house is clean, my dinner is beautiful, my health is superb,  I am called to choose joy and thanksgiving and living like Jesus instead of chasing happiness. 

I am called to the pursuit of holiness, the state of being set apart for sacred use by a powerful God. My goal should be to be more like Jesus, more a part of the loving and healing of others -- goals that may or may not involve happiness at the time.  Patrick and I joke about this whenever he acts out his role as godly husband and calls me out on a choice I shouldn't be making or an attitude I shouldn't be entertaining. I'll say, "Good thing you're called to make me holy, not happy." Happiness is not my end goal.

I feel like I got a better understand of the whole issue today when I searched, "happiness" in the Bible. I wanted to see if it was there at all, and if it was, how were to relate to it.  There were only six references. Only two places explained how we get happiness. 

The first was in Ecclesiastes: "To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness..." (Ecclesiastes 2:26). 

The second was in Matthew, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’" (Matthew 25:21/23). 

It seems like pursuing happiness is none of my concern (Sorry, Jefferson).My concern needs to be pleasing God (holiness) and being faithful with the tasks, talents, relationships, and responsibilties he has given me now. He will give happiness and invite me to share in His. May He give you happiness, dear friends, as you pursue His (and that of His beautiful people) today.  

(picture by By Camdiluv ♥ from Concepción, CHILE (Colours) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)

Born Again...

According to all the baby books and sites, our baby's hearing has gotten stronger and stronger these last few weeks. She can now hear us having conversations or listening to music. For a while now, we've been working on this assumption and incorporating bedtime stories into our nightly routine. We've worked our way through The Jesus Storybook Bible and are now on to some serious Dr. Seuss. It's Patrick's chance to connect with the baby, and let's be honest, I still love a good read-aloud before going to sleep.

I believe our baby girl can hear Patrick's voice because she stirs whenever he gets close enough, even if she's  been still for a while. However, one night, I started thinking about if she could make out the individual words.

I doubt it. Surrounded by the sounds of my stomach, the warm sea she's floating in, and the muffled walls of her world, she can't make out Patrick saying, "Your daddy loves you. Your mama loves you. But Jesus loves  you most of all." He declares her precious, but she won't be able to hear it clearly until she is born. That night, I finally understood Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus.

I had never really gotten the whole "born again" thing either, and always felt like Jesus had been a little tough on the guy. Besides, the words "born again" have gotten a pretty bad rap over the years as they can conjure up Bible thumping or naiive people running around shouting, "Hallelujah!" Why would Jesus choose this image?

Here's the whole conversation (I like The Message's version):

"There was a man of the Pharisee sect, Nicodemus, a prominent leader among the Jews. Late one night he visited Jesus and said, “Rabbi, we all know you’re a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren’t in on it.”

³ Jesus said, “You’re absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it’s not possible to see what I’m pointing to—to God’s kingdom.”

⁴ “How can anyone,” said Nicodemus, “be born who has already been born and grown up? You can’t re-enter your mother’s womb and be born again. What are you saying with this ‘born-from-above’ talk?”

^5-6 Jesus said, “You’re not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the ‘wind-hovering-over-the-water’ creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom. When you look at a baby, it’s just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can’t see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit.

^7-8 “So don’t be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be ‘born from above’—out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it’s headed next. That’s the way it is with everyone ‘born from above’ by the wind of God, the Spirit of God.” (Emphasis mine)

We can speak words of love over our child every day. They can move her, stir something in her she doesn't understand. However, until she is born, she can never fully understand the love we are inviting her into. 

What if God is caressing the arched womb of this world, whispering, shouting, and crooning his love over us? We're promised, "He will take great delight in you;  in his love he will no longer rebuke you,  but will rejoice over you with singing" (Zephaniah 3:17). He is declaring us precious, but unless we believe Jesus when he says he's the only way to God, unless we accept his offer of love and forgiveness, we will never accurately hear his voice. 

Our baby might not understand that there is only one way out. Only one way to fully enter into life. She might be hesitant to leave the safety of her known world. But, Oh, when she does, she will be fully embraced by our words, our arms, and our community. God's children are the same way. If you have never fully accepted this whole Jesus thing, I get it. It's a scary passage into the unknown. But, Oh, when you do, you are then fully embraced by God's words, his arms, his community. You will be able to hear the words of love he has spoken over you for so long. 

If you know Jesus, if you are moving forward in relationship with him, birth doesn't stop our stories. We're called to "grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ." (Ephesians 4:15). 

As we grow, the words of this song have always been beautiful to me: 

Those without status,

those who are nothing,

You have made royal,

gifted with rights,

chosen as partners,

midwives of justice,

birthing new systems,

lighting new lights.

                 -from "Fresh as the Morning" by Shirley Erena Murray. © 1996 Hope Publishing Co. 

Our function as that body is not to be judges, not to be exclusive caretakers of our own, but to be midwives. Those who help others to be born and thereby, to hear. May we take this beautiful calling seriously, until the day when every tribe and tongue can hear the song of the Lamb who has been singing all along. 

"Kernels" of Wisdom

Two women, one six months pregant, the other with a nine month old son, freezing a bunch of corn. It had to be educational, right?

Life Lessons From Our Sweet Corn Adventure

If you've got a friend by your side,
you can conquer more than you could ever conquer yourself.

Keep the littlest people happy, and everyone's happy.

Life's Too Short to Keep Your Hands, Home, Heart from Getting Messy.

Who Really Needs More Toys?

Simple pleasures might be found in the most unlikely of places :)

Is there a relationship or task where you feel like all you do is invest time and effort? 

Be encouraged that...

Worthwhile things in life require effort up front...

 

...but yield fruit that will last through tough winters.

There's a reason God gave us community...
an overwhelming chore can turn into a day of sharing with a friend

that helps both families. We weren't meant to do life alone! 

What can you do today with a friend that you usually do by yourself? Can you turn an act of consumption to an act of community?

Thanks, God for the energy to get this done today. By his strength alone...

Miss