Month: November 2018

Don’t Leave

Don’t leave me yesterday,
when today
is when I need you.
How could you believe
leaving was easy?
It’s not easy.
It’s not easy at all.

Don’t leave me yesterday
when I had hopes
of getting to know you.
Maybe that was just a dream,
but it’s what I had.

It’s hard to stay,
I know.
And though I don’t understand
yesterday,
I want to.

Even the stuff
that’s hard to look at,
The heavy darkness
you feel powerless to share.
You think you take it with you,
but instead
of laying down in the grave,
it lingers in the world.

I wish
I could convince you
then
that peace and joy
is possible.

For now,
for those who struggle,
don’t give up,
and don’t leave them
yesterday.

© Joel Tipple 11/18/2018

Why, Poet?

Why, Poet?
Are these your Psalms?
Like David, have you felt
you don’t belong?

Have you felt your words
float into the ether
without a corresponding hail?
Have you expressed desperation
when especially assailed?

Chin up, poet!
For like the bards of old
God won’t leave you
because you’re bold.

Continue to sing,
without notes, just words.
Continue to speak,
though you feel absurd.
Continue to shine,
even when it rains.
Continue to share,
’cause we all feel pain.

© Joel Tipple 11/17/2018

I’d Rather Be Blind

If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.
James 2:8-9

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
“I Have a Dream” Martin Luther King Jr.

If what my eyes tell me when I see you
prevents me from getting to know you,
I’m better off blind.

Jesus died for all
and He admonished us to be kind,
no matter what kind.
Even “that kind.”
And what is “that kind?”

The lazy, hateful, divisive,
assumptions
we make,
make us all poorer.

If we claim to have Christ
in us,
then we should be all about
breaking down barriers
between ourselves
and the “different.”

After all,
some rules
were made to be broken…
not just bent.

© Joel Tipple 11/16/2018

Encourager

The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.
Psalm 9:9-10

“Everyone has inside them a piece of good news. The good news is you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is.”
Anne Frank

Speak life,
and encourage
everybody
your body
runs across each day.
Be the salt
that seasons
every conversation.
Be the light
that illumines,
your part
of your nation.
Step in
when someone steps out.
Lift your voice
when they can’t shout.
Ask God
to let you
have a part
in His answer
to a desperate prayer.

© Joel Tipple 11/15/2018

 

Good Shepherd

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
John 9:10-11 NASB

“It takes some of us a lifetime to learn that Christ, our Good Shepherd, knows exactly what He is doing with us. He understands us perfectly.”
W. Phillip Keller

“In most, when you go to church, most churches when they have images of the good shepherd, they show Jesus carrying a nice fluffy lamb. Now fluffy little lambs don’t stray from their mommy. The lamb that will stray is the most obstreperous, troublesome one.”
Desmond Tutu

God, I struggle to believe you are a “good” shepherd. For I believe good implies average. An average shepherd would go the reasonable distance, put forth a reasonable effort. A good shepherd would weigh the odds of success in each effort to protect a lamb from harm. A good shepherd wants to live to see another day, another paycheck, another warm meal. A good shepherd might take into account whether his health insurance is going to put him back together again if an aggressive wolf decides to test his resolve.

But you’re not just a “good” shepherd, are you, Lord? No, you’re the kind of shepherd who would and, in fact, did, give His life for His flock. This kind of resolve and protection was not modeled accidentally. The lessons made manifest in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ are many; enough to ponder over a lifetime. Help us to recognize the difference between the average shepherd and the greatest.

© Joel Tipple 11/14/2018

Quick to Hear

Know this, my beloved brothers; let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;
James 1:19

“Just as love to God begins with listening to His Word, so the beginning of love for the brethren begins with listening to them.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Do I hear you?
Or do I only hear your voice?
Not the words between the words
and emotion conveyed
not the words left out
for fear of their weight.
Do I hear your concern
and mix it with my own,
or do I rush to correct
with an errant tone?
Do my thoughts replace what I might learn
because I’m anxiously waiting my turn?

© Joel Tipple 11/13/2018

Service

Givers of life,
givers of time,
givers of all
when all is on the line.
not for a flag
or the land
where it’s planted,
nor political office
where votes are remanded.
But for all God’s children
bordered within
they indeed serve all,
so we thank God
and thank them.

© Joel Tipple 11/11/2018

Counterfeit

(Hold out for what’s real)

For now, we see in a mirror dimly but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
1Corinthians 13:12 ESV

Born to this world searching,
pushing up against the walls.
Crying for salvation,
the injustice of it all.
Searching for tomorrow,
not yet finished with today.
Hardly satisfied
with the part we have to play.
Then one day we find
what we think is it.
The only problem is,
it’s a counterfeit.

Jesus, you are
the genuine article.
No knockoffs
or fraudulent goods will do.
The Great I Am
will always triumph over
what isn’t,
and last
when everything pretend
has gone.

The world will say,
“if it feels good, do it”.
Relationships are disposable,
you can always find another.
They say, “trust your heart,”
but when it is deceitful,
families are left
on the side of the road.

Put away your childish things.
Find joy that lasts
in commitment to the maker.
Trade away a life sentence
for true joy everlasting.
God’s restoration
will replace what’s counterfeit.

© Joel Tipple 11/10/2018

Stay With Me

(Getting through long nights with the ones you love)

Stay with me,
through the night and not knowing,
when the dark is more than what we see.
Hold me close,
when familiar is chaos
and our headlights can’t cut through the smoke.
I’m afraid my faith might not be enough
and I haven’t walked this road before
so just say you’ll keep talking
and I’ll do my level best to stop shaking.

When we get there,
wherever there is,
and we can take a legitimate breath,
that terrible night
will become another square
in the patchwork quilt
of our lives.

We’ll remember,
and be stronger,
through the crying and the praying
and believing without knowing how.
Through the now and now and now
and now…
stay with me.

© Joel Tipple 11/9/2018

How Deep is the Well?

(Another shooting is in the news today, as well as another forest fire causing evacuations.)

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
Romans 12:15

Father, how deep is the well
of compassion,
I wonder?
Praises, so much deeper than me.
For the volume of human suffering
we can view
at a glance
is overwhelming.
It’s mind-numbing.
Yet the depth of your caring
for us is limitless.
We can draw on that which we lack.
We can weep with the suffering,
for that which we draw on
is deeper than we.

© Joel Tipple 11/8/2018