Needs

I need for something
To make sense
In terms I understand,
Framed by the mind's
Belief in truth
Alive in fellow man.

I need for someone
To reach me
With proof of goodness shown,
In acts of kindness
Unrequired
By which our faith is known.

I need for somehow
Words to heal
The grieving of my soul,
It's burdens heavy
Witnessing
A world that waxes cold.

I need for sometimes
Way down deep
Connection to be made,
For understanding
Some way meets
These needs the proper way.

IMMORTALITY

Let us take remembrance of
The dawn of time when only love
Existed to the first of us
And yet unnamed were to remain
The concepts fear and pain
And the notions guilt and shame.

Let's recall that deep inside
We're meant to live and not to die,
Immortal by the grand design
And clothed in heaven's perfect weave,
Untouched by knowing grief
Neither doubt nor disbelief.

Let's understand that when we chose
To disobey that we might know
As much as God of evil's woe
We never can forget -
And only, mercifully, death
Restores us to God's holy best.

WITHOUT US

The sea rolls on without us,
Supports its life beneath us,
As the wind blows on without us,
Carrying seeds that grow to feed us,
In sunlight that shines without us
And rain that falls from skies above us,
Cleansing the earth without us.

Time marches on without us,
Seasons change in rhythm known to us
While life multiplies without us,
Stars in space exist to tease us
For even they don’t need us to be,
As the moon orbits round without us,
The universe expanding before us…

We guess all is lost without us,
And surely the earth revolves around us -
Things are better than were they without us
For we can control anything that affects us
And progress is measured by and about us
Missing the irony daily confronting us -
What we do pales next to what is within us.

GAME

I placed the ball in your court
But you didn’t pick it up,
After all the matches played,
After all the goals that stayed
In between us one on one -
You didn’t care to finish,
Didn’t care to follow through
To verify that we were done.

There never was enough of
What it takes to drive the game
As if just the finish line,
Or the setting of a time
Constituted expert play -
You didn’t care to step it up,
Didn’t care to go for gold
Or make the outcome go my way.

Look back on all the practice,
Think about the end result,
Was it worth what we invested?
Was there a winner, uncontested?
I’ll remember you, for good sport -
Didn’t care for strategy,
Didn’t care for too much training
Didn’t care much about me.

SLAVE

Lord, break me of self-realization

‘Til I know of naught but you

And in that hour of crucifixion

Help me all else to forget

For I am worn from holding onto

Hows and whys and wanting yets.



I can’t support this heavy knowledge,

Care no more to figure out

The nuance of the fraud I saw as

Independence safe and proud,

For all I’ve ever been in charge of

Left me losing solid ground.



All the things that passed before now

Add up to the empty sum

Of what it took for me to give up

Willfulness to be my own

And I’m ashamed at how I fought

For years to hold the rights you won.



So go ahead and take away

My claim to who I am,

And I will be your grateful slave,

Submitting to your hand,

Owned and set free at your word,

Nevermore to take my stand.



The only thing I must remember

For all of eternity

Is this day when I surrendered

To the right authority

Ever living or to come,

For all of lost humanity.

HABITATION

If His life inhabits mine,
Then does He not sustain me?
If I claim His Spirit to reside,
On what more can I rely?
What else do I think to need
Than God Himself?
Preposterous, this supposition
That takes for granted
The very nature of the reborn
Soul, having at its disposal
All-surpassing resource!
Power, love, and mercy complete
Abiding within this vessel!
A constant companion,
He conquers all loneliness,
Providing cover beneath His wings
And ever-present help,
Setting me free from despair!
Why do I yet forget it,
The explosive and vast potential
Within the very heart of me?
Is this not a gift to treasure,
Worth giving up every scrap of myself?
How can any earthly pleasure compare?
Momentary, fleeting, and minor
Are the joys of this world
Compared with the very essence,
The just and creative force
Of the God of the universe
Bound to us, its tiny seed!

TO LOVE ME SO

You speak to me
In truths profound
And make my ears to hear,
As other senses
Fade beyond attention…
And your voice,
Now paramount,
Plants your Words
Inside a mind paused
In broken thought,
Whispered terms
That occupy
Consciousness’ space
For brief revelation,
Unbearably true!
Then disappear,
Regardless of efforts
To hold them fast -
Yet they linger
In realization deep,
Serving purpose
With miraculous impact,
This divine transaction,
Spirit’s contact,
Solely for reaching
Into a life’s timeline,
Purely because…
It pleases you
To love me so.

I do not know what's best for me
But that's not what I think,
As thoughts betray
My wicked heart
That lusts for my own way
Through the muddied water
Of recurring illusion
I stray once more,
Unconvinced of my own folly
Except in Spirit mild,
Its power contained in Words
I must seek for correction,
Repenting again and again
Of this consuming idolatry.

PERCEPTION

Excruciating,
The penetrating gaze
Under which I falter,
Dropping clutched hope
From guilty hands
While straining to see
The mark that I miss
And constantly the light,
Mocking my efforts
To perceive clearly,
Shines down its holy white
Intimidation
To expose my failing features.

Unexpected,
The sudden tenderness
Under which I fall,
Receiving love’s warmth
In empty hands
Extended for redemption,
And constantly the light,
Focusing, holding
My attention fast,
Streams down its pure
Compassion
To enlighten me of His
Wholly benign nature.

WHAT COMES NATURAL

That which comes
Naturally to me
Is the very thing
I should avoid,
Masquerading as God-given
It grabs me wholly,
Insisting on its validity,
Persuading me rationally,
Invading my thoughts
With seeming synchronicity.

That which comes
Naturally to me
Is the very thing
I learned to do
While coping with life,
Learning as a child does
To take control, avoid pain,
Escape disappointment,
Take care of myself,
Disregard the loneliness.

That which comes
Naturally to me
Is a resulting thing
And not at heart,
For underneath its fierce emotion
Lies divine intention
Waiting to be discovered,
Patiently knocking
On the door of my conscience,
Ready to unveil the unreal me.

That which comes
Naturally to me
Commands the flesh
To WAR against
The Spirit of the living Christ
And His quiet truth
I am called to walk in
And draw from, yielding to
The absence of demanding rationale…
In hopes of attaining the prefix super-.