Shadow, are you opposed to light?
Do you think your poor image is
associated
with your negative disposition?
© Joel Tipple
Poetry
Iron Dragonfly
Your name belies your disposition, not hard at all. You started life catching wind on a poorly designed chime.
Now you adorn the door to the backyard shed. When you landed here, the shed’s paint was dark gray. Now the paint
is peeling and faded, every bit the hue of battleship gray, after the battle. No, you aren’t hard, but you do endure.
You do endure.
© Joel Tipple
Opaque
Do I think myself opaque, Lord?
Not transparent, though I surely am.
Hesitant, do I seek to hold back
some part of me from your plan?
Help me surrender every aspect,
reveal you in me as I do.
Mold me, oh great Maker.
Perfect me for Your use.
© Joel Tipple
Speak Into My Life
Speak into my life hope.
The horizon appears bleak sometimes
and I’m looking for a length of rope.
Speak into my life light.
At times it seems so dark and I can’t see well to fight.
Speak into my life strength.
I’ve tried too long to make it on my own
and feel I’m about to break.
Speak into my life faith.
I started with what seemed enough.
Now my belief feels second rate.
Speak into my life and pray.
We both need God to fight for us
and help us win the day.
For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
Matthew 18:20 English Standard Version (ESV)
© Joel Tipple
in my backyard
in my backyard
army men
fought their battles
with plastic guns
and melted crayolas
an old aquarium
with a handful of tadpoles
from the ditch
grew legs and hopped away
couldn’t say which
way they went
the sandbox
shared by the cat
how I lived through
the germs that
i played in
i don’t know
the old barn
seemed huge
and dark beyond measure
smelling of old wood and hay
and ancient treasure
the coins a friend
and i buried
in a box we carried
up the hill
someday maybe they’ll
find it and wonder
days lasted forever
the future was far away
time to ponder that later
for a boy in the country
a whole world ago
© Joel Tipple
All Right
Some days
I dunk my head in a cup of coffee.
It doesn’t have to be any way but hot.
By the time
I’ve sipped it down I’m feeling more ready
for whatever wonky things this day brings.
The clatter of leaves blowing in like fall
brings news of changing weather. Change is coming.
But it didn’t ask me, didn’t ask me, didn’t ask me.
But it’s all right.
It’s all right and I’ll just roll right into heaven.
No reason to stop just cause this life ain’t cake.
It’s all right all day and into evenin’.
It’s all what God gives you and it’s surely what you make.
It’s all right.
© Joel Tipple
Eloquent
i’m not
all
ways
so eloquent
words
all run for the door
to be met
by the
gate
keeper
who checks to see
if they’ve been said before
and yet
i watch as the words
tumble forth
forgetting
their
place
in line
what i hoped
would be
rhapsody
turns out
not so
sublime
good soldiers
words
train some more
letters
lift
and run
cycle then
until the wheels
go and
spin up
the sun
© Joel Tipple
Ego
I opened the door one day,
to the room
where I had decided to keep God.
It was a nice room
I thought,
decorated lavishly
but tastefully.
To my dismay,
revealed
where I believed
I had left God
was
instead,
my ego.
It was then
that I realized my mistake.
I had built a special room
for God,
while allowing my ego
full roam
through the house
of my life.
In that moment
of clarity
I realized I had managed
to get it all
quite backward.
© Joel Tipple
23 But Jesus didn’t swerve. “Peter, get out of my way. Satan, get lost. You have no idea how God works.”
24-26 Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?
Matthew 16:23-26
The Message (MSG)
Vision
much is expected from whom much is given
but all the same
so much more
He will do
through His children
the children of the Lord
often He waits only
for the moment we dare to ask
and then step out
believing He wants
to strengthen our bodies
for the task
our minds, too
to focus
on not small things
but great
for there is victory
in climbing daunting mountains
and reaching for a higher fate
© Joel Tipple
8-10 So don’t be embarrassed to speak up for our Master or for me, his prisoner. Take your share of suffering for the Message along with the rest of us. We can only keep on going, after all, by the power of God, who first saved us and then called us to this holy work. We had nothing to do with it. It was all his idea, a gift prepared for us in Jesus long before we knew anything about it. But we know it now. Since the appearance of our Savior, nothing could be plainer: death defeated, life vindicated in a steady blaze of light, all through the work of Jesus.
11-12 This is the Message I’ve been set apart to proclaim as preacher, emissary, and teacher. It’s also the cause of all this trouble I’m in. But I have no regrets. I couldn’t be more sure of my ground—the One I’ve trusted in can take care of what he’s trusted me to do right to the end.
13-14 So keep at your work, this faith and love rooted in Christ, exactly as I set it out for you. It’s as sound as the day you first heard it from me. Guard this precious thing placed in your custody by the Holy Spirit who works in us.
2 Timothy 1 8-14 (MSG) The Message
sure
sure as the clouds
play hide and seek with the sun
come a time
the things we’ve done
will be revealed
of our own volition
or without
because of our condition
come a time
we’ll need
to be healed
we can’t get all we need
from those we love
right relationship you see
starts from above
where you are
is where you’re placed
your obedience first
when you seek His face
will nourish you
and those you touch
with the living waters
© Joel Tipple
Matthew 6:33-34
The Message (MSG)
30-33 “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.
34 “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
Write here, Joel. 