What weighs heaviest now will soon be light; what looms most stormily passes soon. Clouds cannot linger; waves must break. Because of this, we wait. This lightness feels most dense now, but the weight of glory, light as air, will fall and smother all your Now and revel in Not Yet. We call to mindContinue reading “Lent: The Wait, the Weight 4”
Category Archives: Devotional
Lent: The Wait, the Weight 3
Held down by denial, oppressed by oblivion, as torrents break we fancy them a whirlpool. Nothing prepares for this crisis of self, when the spirit, crying, How long, how long? hears instead the call to crawl into the dust and weep. To whom have You dealt thus? Yet no better are we who bear YourContinue reading “Lent: The Wait, the Weight 3”
Lent: The Wait, the Weight 1
Waves drag, anchor fails – my God my God why In this torpor, what lifts? The heart, bird-like, hovers – an albatross, a vulture? Yet a dove dives deep and holds; it coos what cannot be cried. My God my God why – too heavy for words, yet hands can be raised, barely, above theContinue reading “Lent: The Wait, the Weight 1”
Lent: Man of Sorrows 6
And keep – keep me, keep watch, keep hope. The pains that crush me are like pricks beside Your agony, and yet You hold arms out as though to gather in more pain, more shame, and thus more me. Man of sorrows, what a name, what a scheme thatContinue reading “Lent: Man of Sorrows 6”
Lent: Man of Sorrows 5
I cannot stop the tide of life: it moves at speeds I cannot calculate; it twists and turns and undulates. It thwarts my best paid plans, my stern-set goals. Nothing in this life bends to my will; my trunk is buffeted too bluntly by these waves; my fists smart from clenching atContinue reading “Lent: Man of Sorrows 5”
Lent: Man of Sorrows 3
Obedience is a crown of thorns. The earth’s the Lord’s; He does as He pleases, and it pleases Him to wear these thorns. Joy set before Him, He endures; joy not instantaneous, I yield. Obedience is a crown of thorns, and I despise this crown. Go into the wilderness; see all earth’s kingdoms laid atContinue reading “Lent: Man of Sorrows 3”
Lent: Man of Sorrows 2
My God, my God: head full of wounds, You cry. My God, my God: what rupture in the godhead makes perfect veins now burst? What depth of love plumbs so low that even earth shakes at impact? My God, my God, have mercy. I wound my head and choose these depths; yet, Man of Sorrows,Continue reading “Lent: Man of Sorrows 2”
Lent: Man of Sorrows 1
What fuels my pride is nothing like what You gave up – true God, true man – when you bowed as low as bowing goes, as low as heaven spans. What strikes my face is feather-like beside the spear that pierced Your side; my burdens roll onto the floor beside the death YouContinue reading “Lent: Man of Sorrows 1”
Lent: Humility 6
Teacher, they say, grant us whatever we ask of you. Assumptions rich in self, they see a throne, and seats on either side; surely theirs? For what other reason do they fight? Yet His kingdom is not of this world; its great ones do not presume, nor grasp. Losing and finding self, they serve, seeingContinue reading “Lent: Humility 6”
Lent: Humility 5
The lie entwines with half-truths: it pleases the eye, and wisdom seems good, yet that which seems deceives, tears apart at the seams the fine-woven fabric of image and praise. Who are we? Like God, yet when we grasp at fruit to be like God, the image dies; the garden turns to dustbowl. O whatContinue reading “Lent: Humility 5”
The Consolations of Writing 