inspiration

God’s First Bandmember

First, a couple notes:
1) Friends who are drummers, don’t get a big head over this.
2) I won’t pretend there is any biblical basis for my poem. I am not adding or subtracting from what is between the covers. I’m just sayin’.

Do you think something was left out?
Maybe it was just inferred.
Perhaps when God wrote Genesis,
He assumed we’d understand that in his word,
in the background sometimes subtle,
sometimes quiet,
sometimes loud,
is the presence of a great drummer,
who, thank God, is not proud.
Although he or she could certainly be,
because when God first considered man
and everything else in creation
and (come on, of course!) the first band,
for His first band member, He found a drummer
who could put Buddy Rich to shame.
If you’re too young, or not into big bands
you’ll have to Google his name.
For proof I offer my heart,
or yours,
or a friend’s.
I imagine at the end of the first day
there was a drum solo no one wanted to end.
So the next time you hear music
of, I suppose, any kind,
imagine God’s first band
without a drummer to keep time.

Big Risk

There’s Big Risk
lurking
just around the corner.
Do you dare get out of your chair?
He’s a monster of epic proportions
waiting for you there.
You imagine…
He’s checking off names in an old leather notebook
with a pencil worn down to the nub.
Surely he’s fried bigger fish than you,
You’re just the latest to join the club.
You can hear him breathing
out and in
heavy and slow.
Your heart feels
as though it might burst
if you get up and go.

Then you remember your dreams,
the goals, the plans.
A flame flickers
to life
inside you.
The fire gets bigger
than the fear living there.
It rushes from room to room.

Now ablaze with courage,
you stand up and step out
around the corner to face it.
It’s time to live or die trying,
You’re so mad at that monster,
you could spit.

Sweat pouring from your forehead,
you look,
ready to do battle with Goliath.
Forward,
nothing there.
To the sides,
naught there too.
Then you look down
and catch your breath.

Instead of the demon you imagined,
ready to eat you for lunch,
There’s a cute little monster
with a bullhorn twice his size.
Clearly, he couldn’t do much.

Then you see
you mistook
where the battlefield lay;
it wasn’t with the titan you thought.
It was with yourself
and wanna be monsters
that you truly fought.

Matthew 10:26-31
26 “So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. 28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Unique

All are unique, though each of us
under the sun
are all part of the same.

Your own blend of talents
and foibles
and genius of art,
together with your name…

bring a certain indefinable
flavor to our world;
a particular purpose and goal.

Without you,
your special piece
in God’s puzzle,
the image
would be something less
than whole.

Ferry Me Over

Though I can’t see the bank on the other side,
ferry me over, Lord, ferry me over.
As you’ve done it before, you will provide.
Ferry me over this river.

Ferry me over this river, Lord, when all I want to do is drown,
when the burdens of this life start to take me under
and hope is nowhere to be found.
Help me take stock of your promises
I know they’re in your word to be used
I’m holding in my hand a ticket, Father.
I know you won’t refuse
to ferry me over, ferry me over.

I’ve brought nothing for the journey, Lord.
See here my empty hands.
I can’t rely on my own strength
to get me to the promised land.
Anything you see in this mind and this body,
God you know I want you to have.
But please first ferry me over this wind swept river,
When I get there please help me stand. Please ferry me.

Ferry me over this river, Lord, when all I want to do is drown,
when the burdens of this life start to take me under
and hope is nowhere to be found.
Help me take stock of your promises,
I know they’re in your word to be used.
I’m holding in my hand a ticket, Father.
I know you won’t refuse
to ferry me over, ferry me over, carry me over, take me over,
ferry me over.

Jesus in my skin

Imagine what would it be like
if for one day Jesus posed as me?
What if the man that Jesus was
woke up in my skin?
Sitting down at my desk,
noting my schedule,
I wonder if He’d let it be
or see things to change…

Like
who He’d see and what He’d buy,
what He’d clean or leave alone,
where He’d drive, how fast He’d go,
what He’d think
of the guy
going slow…

Halfway through the day,
holding my notebook,
would He pause to have a cup
and just assess?
Would He go straight ahead
with my appointments?
Or would He lay down for a nap,
some needed rest.

Then I wonder how He’d finish my day…
Would the world’s experience of me
be different that day?

Would they see the same kind of eyes?
Would they feel the same way
when I stopped and said hello?
Would Jesus walking
using my feet
seem very
different?

Nearing the end of the day,
feeling my body is weary,
would Jesus
be more patient
with people I know
than I would?

Would He sit down and and write
some suggestions for me?
For instance:
Play with the dog more?
Talk with people more and less at them?
Stop and smell the flowers and pick one for my wife?
Would He submit that I need more time to read,
or maybe go to bed sooner,
and get up earlier too.

I have to wonder
what it would be like…
A day with Jesus
in my skin.

Thank you Max Lucado, for the inspiration.

Dancing in Heaven

In heaven we all can dance.
Limits disappear in a flash.
Those of us not fashion forward
all of a sudden have dash.

The people whose legs don’t work,
or with two lefts instead of one
find their hearts directing moves
that only in their dreams they’ve done.

In heaven I don’t believe
we’ll spend much time playing harp,
instead we’ll spend it doing,
not just waiting for something to start.

So if in your best dreams you’re dancing,
heaven has a floor for you,
and God has the best choreographers
to help those dreams come true.

Fear

Fear,
the bully,
waiting to tap you on the shoulder and remind you why he’s there.
He likes to whisper things like:
you can’t,
you won’t,
or
it’s too hard.
As evidence for his claims he will
use your past against you,
conveniently leaving out that the reason
things went badly was because you
listened to him.
He prefers
the dark
because he knows he doesn’t do well in
the light.
The light causes him to become
small and insignificant.
Knowledge
is his enemy.
Courage
is something he would much rather
not be in the same room with.
Words like:
joy,
truth,
love,
hurt his ears.
Try as he might,
when he digs around in his pockets
for the key
to a home filled with prayer,
unable to find one,
he walks away.

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power,
and of love, and of a sound mind.
2 Timothy 1:7
So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10

New Day Beginning

There’s my heart
born in
hope
That place in my soul
well protected
a rechargeable
battery
using the satellite
of my mind
each morning
as it searches for
God
filled up I feel
lifted beyond
circumstances to
connect
elevated above
challenges to
endure
even the oldest
and strongest of trees
from outside of themselves draw
nourishment

True Wisdom

“How blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. For her profit is better than the profit of silver and her gain is better than fine gold. She is more precious than jewels; And nothing you desire compares with her.” Proverbs 3:13-15.

Teach me where to find true wisdom, Lord,
the only one who knows my days.
Every time I’ve leaned on what I know, I’ve discovered the error of my ways.
Help me to hold fast your words.
Be my shelter while I’m on this earth.
When I believe I’m too little or too much,
teach me what you say I’m worth.

Help me to not abandon your instruction, Lord.
Help me to not turn away,
for the difference between my mind and yours, Lord,
is like that between night and day.
You who founded the earth and the heavens,
the only source of true light,
when my eyes can’t see what’s before me,
show me the way and the life.