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Walk!

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Fast walk
slow walk
quick around the block walk
stretch walk
sleep walk?
not recommended

shop n walk
can we talk?
strap on some tunes n walk
more fun if you rock walk
read while you walk?
probably not

stare up at the sky walk
watch out for the other guy walk!
pray and walk
sigh walk
river walk
streaming video walk
bring soap and shower while you walk?
no

ocean walk
forest walk
branch out and travel walk
crock while you walk
download while you walk
wash while you walk
or dry while you walk
don’t prance while you walk
maybe dance while you walk
pick a flower while you walk
avoid those cracks while you walk!
trim your nails while you walk?
are you kidding?

take your mate and walk
kid around while you walk
grand-kid around while you walk
love while you walk
keep it clean while you walk!
don’t be mean while you walk
or obscene while you walk
dream walk
but with eyes open walk
oh…
just walk!

© Joel Tipple
317

To the Encouragers

To the encouragers, we celebrate you,
with your words
you change lives.
Salt of the earth, God’s messengers,
Discerning talents with your light.

How many of us would not try,
or try a little and then stop.
Spirits faint, not willing to step out,
for fear of falling.

Cajoling, gently nudging,
You’re the ones who say we can swim.
Somehow we’re able to borrow your courage
and begin
and begin again.

Whatever our best is, you see it before we do,
encouragers, heroes behind the scenes.
You don’t always get the credit,
but we know how much your love in action means.

If you get what you deserve,
you’ll be encouraged too.
Thank you, encouragers.
Thank you.

© Joel Tipple
311

Vessel to Serve

Why did you call
me,
this nondescript vessel?
I’m every-day-ware, with a few chips from use.
How do I dare take a place on your table?
And yet you say I’m beautiful. And you use me.

It’s the same mistake we make every time,
trying to discover our purpose
our way.
But the vessel cannot dictate to the potter.
It doesn’t have the final say.

Let your love pour forth from this vessel.
Help me get out of the way, and let Your Spirit work.
I know this God, You didn’t make your vessel
to store.
You made it to serve.

Here at your table, your everyday vessels,
redeemed and rescued from sin.
We humbly offer ourselves Lord.
however you care to use us,
pray begin, Lord.
Begin.

Let your love pour forth from this vessel.
Help me get out of the way, and let Your Spirit work.
I know this God, You didn’t make your vessel
to store.
You made it to serve.

© Joel Tipple
310

Walking Around

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Lord, do you think it’s breaking?
Can you confirm the sound?
They say when you have children
it’s like your heart out there
walking around.

Walking around out there in the world,
a boy, a girl, or both.
Forever young though years may pass,
the cord feels like a rope.
Lord I know you’ve been there,
so I won’t waste words complaining
it isn’t fair.

Lord I know we can be
a little melodramatic,
and parents throughout the ages
have been correctly described as frantic.
But since you gave us each a heart,
perhaps share the reasons,
and as long as we’re going through it,
help us survive the seasons.

Walking around out there in the world,
an evolution of trust.
A joy and burden all wrapped up,
though we try not to fuss.
Mentioned in our prayers often,
if not more.
A wise parent focuses on the gratitude score.

© Joel Tipple
307

Not Such a Bad Idea?

Imagine our cars
transparent.
Just like Wonder Woman’s jet.
All those anonymous travelers,
those people you haven’t yet met,
were visible and seemingly vulnerable.
Would you act the same?

How about then reducing the speed?
Let’s say 45.
Would we have time to see the country
and more likely stay alive?
Would we miss the animals
that so often get in our way?
I wonder what else we would notice
at that much less hectic pace?

What if we had to stop,
say every five miles?
What if we talked to our fellow travelers,
and passed pleasantries for a while?
I know this all sounds like a fools paradise
and you’ve got places to go.
But if we all slowed down and really looked at each other more,
I believe in some valuable ways we’d grow.

© Joel Tipple
306

A Man

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John Q. Person, have you considered
what it means to be a man,
since the time someone told you
you were one?
Have you just been placing
one foot after the other,
but without a genuine plan, son?

I can tell you a man isn’t passive.
He refuses to trust to luck.
He knows the size of the heart in a man
isn’t measured by the size of his truck.
He knows the best leaders are followers too.
He knows about God’s reward.
He has an almost desperate desire
to find genuine ways to serve.

He knows each man has a talent
unique and given by God.
He strives to find and develop his own gifts
while not chasing after laud.
He never stops learning.
He values laughter
and tears.
He remains forever grateful
and cherishes every year.

© Joel Tipple
302

“How beautiful are the feet…”

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And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
Romans 10:15 ESV (English Standard Version)

Blessed are
the feet of those
who bring good news
and a light to shine in the darkened places.

Blessed are
the hands of those
who labor tirelessly
for those with weary faces.

We don’t always see
the ones spreading hope
of a destiny
many thought went missing long ago.

Sometimes thinly disguised,
contained within caring eyes,
and conversations that go beyond
the surface,
to communicate the saving message
for both kings and vagabonds.

© Joel Tipple

Underwater

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Have you ever felt like you’re underwater
but so unequipped to swim?
Have you ever believed the world walking by
knows some secret way to fit in?
Don’t buy into the message society likes to sell,
the story that goes: Buy our car, wear our clothes, eat our food
and all will be well.

Never enough
What the world sells
Never enough
though your accounts are topped over
Never enough
to buy your freedom from fear
Never enough
You must be new here,
’cause sooner or later everyone learns
things
are never enough.

© Joel Tipple

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:19-21 ESV (English Standard Version)

For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world
1 John 2:16 ESV

The Fire in Your Heart

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If the season you’re going
through seems cooler,
and small is the fire
in your hearth,
abide in the Lord,
make Him your refuge.
Stoke the fire
in your heart.

© Joel Tipple

God, You Rock.

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For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
2 He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.
Psalm 62:1-2 ESV (English Standard Version)

Resting in the knowledge
that it’s not just talk.

My reality is
God is my rock.

A lot of people are tossed about
fretful because of the news:
war and destruction
in this world.

But in the final analysis
only one house will remain,
and that belongs to the Lord.

© Joel Tipple