RESIGNATION

When the tree is young,
Its bright green leaves,
Bursting forth boldly,
Proclaim intent to grow
With stunning focus,
Not to be challenged by
The sky’s failure to rain,
The sun’s refusal to shine,
The soil’s lack of content,
Nor the air’s stagnant heat.

Now it grows older,

Its branches turn
Careful in season,
Producing darker fruit
With timidity,
While often challenged by
The damaging winds,
The violent storms,
The incessant assault
On its viability.

In later winter

The tree resolves
To stand tall and proud,
Its calloused bark rigid
With hollow furrows
That mark its challenges
With time and attack,
With needful neglect,
With resignation
And withered, fading fruit.

                           

RISE ABOVE

Come with me

And rise above
All that is not born of love,
Come to see
And come to hear,
With open eyes
And eager ears,
The higher life
That we can live
When captured by
The One who gives
The Way to heaven
Here on Earth
Within the secret
Of rebirth...

We can choose

To rise above
All that's not in line with love,
We can think
And we can feel,
With renewed minds
And hearts now healed,
When we remember
It's our right
To choose His Way
And fight the fight
For all that's good
And in the Light
Of honest truth,
The highest height...

 

 

RESTORATION

 You'll have to feel your way through

 The fear to freedom's side,

Allowing that I love you

On levels beyond high,

And standing on this solid ground

You'll know to take the leap

When I have spoken softer words

For you in mind to keep.

 

You'll have to risk surrendering

And trust me to protect

The part of you I made to be

Responsive to neglect -

Your innocence was taken

By the force of others' will,

But I am God of what should be

And I'll restore you still.

 

Steadfast

Take my heart,

This ship at sea,
And firmly steer the oars,
Providing breath
To fill the sails
O’er gently rolling swells.

Guide my way

By truest light
On steady course to you
Who shows the path
Through stormy night
And all that threatens harm.
 

Keep me steadfast

On this keel,
No list to right nor left,
On par to reach
The promised shore
Where life abundant rests.

Set Back

Lies that we’ve believed before

Are harder to resist,
For when they knock upon the door
To give a traitor’s kiss,
We think to open wide enough
To take a better look,
Still, unable to call their bluff,
We’ll take the bait and hook.

 

So familiar are the words
That we don’t want to hear,
We fail to see they prey upon
The deepest of our fears,
For truth not spoken out of love
Might also be deceit
When the fruit it offers us
Is judgment and defeat.

 

Yet tempting these untruths can be

Considering the source,
For once we took them honestly
As love’s corrective force,
Though now we’ve learned just who we are
And purpose to forgive,
We still must bear the hateful scars,
On hearts set free to live.

Purpose

This is natural,
Being here,
Where pieces fit
Together
Serving purpose
Without trying -
Destiny reached,
Automatic,
No will to err
In pleasing other
Than the source
Of all reason
To exist.

This is simple,
To be here,
Where all are content
Together
Serving purpose
Without complaint –
None greater,
None less,
No egos to argue
For power
Over others
Under reason
To exist.

 

 

One Day

One day we will step outside
The confines of our shallow minds
And into outer realms of joy
Where Spirits join to become one
Dimension to expand as love,
Unending brightness all around
As laughter with a smile wins out,
Releasing all that held us down
From here to end of glory's time
Where limits don't exist in rhyme
Nor touch, nor feel, nor open eyes,
Nor how to show you truth that I
So badly want to share inside
Your heart that has been waiting for
The freedom beyond insight's door...

Mine

Be anxious not, nor worry so,
For I dwell in your heart,
And I will calm its beating fast
With words of love and truth,
Reminding you to seek me out
As you give thanks in prayer,
That I would give you everything
Required for life and peace.
 
I am an ever-present help
In time of need for you,
Always giving all I have
To be received as free,
And even in your toughest times
If you will just be still,
I will reveal myself to you,
'Til all else becomes small.
                                       
When you perceive the love I have
For you, my child and bride,
Nothing then can trouble you           
As we walk side by side
Throughout this world I’ve overcome
No matter what it brings,
For we’re together for all time
And every burden I’ll make mine.

Disregard

When the world was younger
And the days were long to fade,
Time was in our favor
Like the promises we made
In the haste of lofty visions
Born of dreams too young to wait
While the sun that set before us
Painted colors far away
From long-expected yellows,
Replacing them with grays,
And the moon at closer distance
Offered no means of escape.

Now that life is older
And the knowing weighs us down,
Time is growing shorter
As we fumble secrets found
In the loss of hopeful reaches
Where the resignation sounds
Like the tolling of a broken bell
In which the spider's webs abound,
For we have chosen thus to hear
The tune that ever comes around,
Repeating over moments lost
The disregard that we've allowed.
 

Gone Before

Like the clouds before the storm

Prepare the sky to fall,
And like the waves upon the shore
That smooth the sand on which we walk,
As the cold of winter tells
The trees to drop their leaves,
And like the plow that tills the soil
To ready for the seed,
You go before me, making way
That I might follow where you lead.

Like the shepherd goes ahead,

Securing pastures green,
And leads the flock beside still waters,
Safe from dangers they don’t see,
Guiding like a light in darkness,
Pointing to the promised land,
He goes in front of those who follow,
Reaching back His steady hand
When all is safe to walk beside Him,
Trusting in the path He’s planned.