PROGRESS

Time progresses forward,
Leaving the past behind as it was,
Fading into wisdom,
The clarity of the present
Prevailing over memory’s loss.

Invention pushes forward,
Building on the past in vain hope,
Faster, stronger, smarter -
Perceiving not the limit
Of the mind’s potential.

God invents the time,
Embodies the source of life itself,
Reaching, extending, moving -
An ever-breathing vine carrying us,
The growing dependent.

The future waits mysterious,
Not meant to be foreseen
But discovered, experienced
As the perpetual crawl of being
Continues its inspired journey.

HERE YOU GO

Here’s what we will do for you,
Nothing that you want us to
‘Cause all your lies were never true
And we have been created new.

Here’s what we would care to hear,
The words of love and not of fear
That proceed from the caring tongue
Of spirits made to live as one.

Here’s what we choose to believe,
The truth of words that God has breathed,
And not your whispers of the dark,
Casting doubt in trusting hearts.

Here’s the way that we will fight,
Always, ever for what’s right
In constant opposition to
The likes of evil, hateful you.

THE IMPORTANCE OF WORDS

They all say their lines in perfect style,
Delivering words like fountain pennies,
Heaping their cheapened utterance on tired ears
That beg for valuable silence.

No one takes them seriously anymore,
These thespians of the modern age
Who speak for the sake of filling time
With sound lest they’re forced to think.

We’re buried in a lack of meaning,
Saddened that gone is the day when art
Was all about communication,
Well-crafted and designed to impact.

If I wax poetic it is only because
I love the careful combination
Of symbols we call language,
This powerful tool for sharing ourselves.

The words existed before mankind,
Forming in the vortex of space and time
Until they could not help but create,
For words become what they define.

LOST TO FOUND

I don’t know why you love me,
I don’t know how you could,
Except that God above me
Made you so you would
Shelter and protect me
From the evil world around
With the strength to let me
Make the leap from lost to found.

I can’t begin to tell you
For I can’t pretend to know
The reasons why He thought you
Could depend on me to go
All the way to heaven with you
Through the valleys and the tears,
But I thank my God He picked you
And has kept us through the years.

I haven’t been the best one
In the ways I haven’t shown
And I wish I wasn’t just one
So you’d never be alone,
Though apart we’re still together
I can’t stand to feel your heart
In the pain of what I never
Should’ve caused you from the start.

I still believe in both of us
And what the future holds,
The past is but a ghost to us
Whose haunting’s dead and cold
And now that we have cast away
Unto a better shore,
I pray our love will find a way
To dream like once before.

The Innocents

These are the kids
We had together
In earlier times
When we got along better

These are the ones
Who suffer most
From all the failures
Parents boast

These are the purest
Hearts of all
Corrupted by
Our selfish fall

These little minds
Can’t understand
Why love can’t always
Last as planned

These precious souls
Were meant to be
Both innocent
And trouble free…

BURIED

My mind can’t seem to wrap around
The truths now buried deeper down
Below the ranting of the mind
Distracting me from trying to find
The peace I know that should be there
Along with spirit’s kinder fare
Compared with this thing ominous
That tries to pull away from love
Its rightful blessing only for
A chance to try and wound some more.

Needs

Lately, I've been thinking about needs. I find it interesting that when our needs are being met, we don't think about what they are. When they are not being met, we still don't think about what they are - we just lament this or that which is missing in our lives. It is probably not good for us to focus on what our needs really are - we are supposed to let God take care of that [Phil 4:19 My God will supply all of your needs, according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus]. He made us, for Pete's sake! He understands us best, loves us best, cares for us best, feeds us best, cries with us best, and supplies us best.

I don't really think I can put into words what my needs are, especially the emotional ones. I just know that when they are met I feel important, understood, worthwhile, needed, successful, and intriguing. When they are not met I feel insignificant, clumsy, unsuccessful, unfulfilled, misunderstood, and isolated. Isn't it amazing that one person can experience these 2 extremes in the same lifetime? It is all related to connectedness, and fellowship with others who share our passion and perspective on life. Without others to love on us, we are unmotivated to do our best.

I am not sure what the point of this post is, except that we should take the time to connect with others every single day - and tell them how great they are, how much we love and admire them, and how much we need them, too. Everyone likes to feel needed, even God - who already knows that He is. I am grateful for those He sends to meet my needs, even when I'm not sure what they are...

Old Growth

The past falls away
Like stricken branches
Of mighty, ancient trees;
Slowly dying over time
Until no growth remains.

Even still it stays in place,
The fruitless arm
Too frequently used
By convenient visitors
Hiding from runaway storms.

Only when death is complete,
Nothing living holding on,
Does the stubborn, hardened
Proof of past existence
Succumb to anonimity and fall away.

Puzzled?

Try to imagine a puzzle made up of a million pieces. If you’ve ever put together a 1000-piece puzzle, this would be 1000 times that size and number of pieces! Where would a puzzle this size be assembled? Could it ever be completed without losing a piece or two? How many people would it take to put it together, and how long would it take them? When finished, the puzzle would certainly be too large for any one person to handle, whether lifting, turning, or moving it. How would a puzzle like this even be manufactured in the first place? There would be no machinery capable of stamping out such a huge pattern.

Suppose that you were looking at the giant puzzle completed. Would you be able to pick out one individual piece? Suppose that one single piece was missing… then would you be able to clearly see it, apart from the others? Suppose that two, five, ten, or 100 pieces were missing – how much more would that become obvious with the picture now incomplete?

What do you envision as the subject matter for this great puzzle? What does the picture look like? Are the pieces large or small, and with what kind of contours? Are there many colors, or a single color with slight variations? What is the theme?

What if, after such a great feat as assembling this 1-million-piece puzzle, you wanted to preserve it? How would you go about turning it over and gluing the pieces together? What kind of planning, specialized tools, crews of people, and careful execution would be involved?

It is daunting for us to think on such a grand scale. We can hardly wrap our minds around a puzzle of such great size and number of pieces. It seems impossible to us that it could actually be assembled or manipulated without some major challenges and likely catastrophes. To our perception, it would seem to be unrealistic, unfathomable, impossible.

God made a puzzle of even larger scale than the one mentioned above - He made the universe. He conceived of the picture, decided on each detail of its appearance, created each individual piece, shapes each piece to fit exactly into His vision, put the whole thing together in reality, and is constantly searching for the pieces that are missing. His puzzle is called The Kingdom of God. It is too big for us to ever understand, too lofty for us to attain. The picture is more detailed and creative than any work of art ever made with human hands. The pieces are each totally unique, fitting perfectly into their special place in the puzzle. But what is even more amazing about God’s Kingdom is that it is dynamic. The puzzle which God created for us to be a part of and for Him to manage is constantly changing. It would be like working on a puzzle and then realizing that some of the pieces you had already placed were now a different size and shape – the other pieces around them also having to change to fit correctly, and a total reworking from that focal point would be necessary. Once again, an unfathomable feat for us.

This is what God does every second of every day – he maintains the greatest puzzle on earth as it dynamically changes. He seeks for the lost pieces, he glues all of the pieces together with His Holy Spirit, and ultimately it forms a picture of Jesus. Jesus us the subject matter – for all things were created through Him and by Him and for Him. I don’t know about you, but I am honored to be a part of the puzzle, and very thankful that I’m not a lost piece.

In Reality...

I have not written anything here in a while. I've been working on a Bible study and it is absorbing and humbling and directional. It takes my thoughts to the larger reality that we live within. It forces me to see beyond the mundane, beyond the curtain of this stage we call life. This is not reality, this is the realm of perception. In school we are taught that reality is what we can reach with our 5 senses - what we can touch, smell, taste, hear, and see. Science tends to support this tactile, experimental, tangible definition of reality. Although I am a scientist, I do not.

Like every other major discovery when revealed, an unmasking or unveiling has taken place. I have come to recognize that this world is but a counterfeit for the real life, that is life in the spirit. As C.S. Lewis states, "You don't have a spirit, you have a body - you are a spirit." Amen to that. I am a spirit negotiating this rather clumsy physical world. This is reality - that I am an alien, a foreigner here who seeks to return home to the place where other spirits reside.

Yeah, this all sounds really supernatural and you might ask, how do I know these things? What proof do I have? Why would I postulate so ridiculously? In answer, I would say that I have indeed sensed it - not with any of the 5 senses given above, but with the sense of my being. The part of me that is, that has life and seeks to define it, that feels uncomfortable with much of the world in which I am trapped - that is the real me. When that part of me, my spirit and heart and being, comes into contact with God, I am experiencing reality. It is then that I understand, fit in, relax, feel, love, stand amazed, swell with energy, want to cry and scream out, never want to part from He who makes me whole. Praise God, I feel like a single puzzle piece that has been placed, feeling the contact with all of my straight and curved edges alike, resting secure in the greater picture of which I am a part. Without me, the picture would not be complete - and without the picture, I would not be necessary. My worth and identity are defined in God's ultimate design.