Saturday, November 24, 2012

Reflection on storms


Oh I said I'll be true to you

But I did not have that much to do

When the colors ripen in the sky as the day passes by 

The sand gets soggy then gets dry

So was I!

I would lie and lie
still and never work for much more.

 

You threw me into tormoil because

How could I say I worshiped you when I did not
follow the law you gave or live the life you told us to live?

 
You decreed for me
An impossible moment lasting for years
That wrenched away even my tears

 

Suddenly one day the sun shone through
I wept with gratitude

Now I want to guard my life and keep your light close
and make different choices that the choices I chose.

Follow, listen and obey,
and keep my feet ever on the Way.

Thoughts prompted by Hurricane Sandy


The rain from the sky calls us to reflect on the people who have suffered from the killer storms and the typhoons of recent memory: the suffering of global warming embedded in our senses.Their experience looms more horrific than anything I have endured and no matter how many times the sotrms strike it does not make the heart inert. It is a sign of Your force to act on the world. The rain from the sky wrenches the buildings to lie on their sides.  The rain drenches the ground until the floods destroy all the homes.

In these days, the human heart still works but its beats are softer and less easily heard. Clouded by radiation and information our hearts must talk to us more softly and see less clearly than they once did.  Or maybe more of us weighs heavily now that population has grown so immense?  Is it that now there is more ignorance by percentage or by presence? But even with our blind hearts, with the violence of these storms God gets our attention.

 These storms can lead me in my vision back to the troubles I faced and still face, and my emerging hope tied to the hope for us as a race.  I have had chaos and disaster for years and now I find myself in a peacful moment afterwards.  The wreckage is still there but it looks like it can be fixed. I chose to wreck my life.  I chose to destroy what I had so carefully built.  I took control and created disasters all over my life.  But now it looks like I might heal.  Can the same be true of the environment?

It is too late take our place beside Iron and the Mountains and decline to take care of the earth.  Human beings are khalifah, we are the keepers of the earth.  We can not disagree.  We have killed so many species and polluted our atmosphere.  We have destroyed that which we said we would preserve.

But maybe with the brilliance we have among us we can restore the earth.  I thought my life was over but now I think I can find a way to solve my problems.  Likewise it looks like the environmental destruction we face is unsurmountable.  But now I think I have a chance to live a good life someday.  The environmental destruction is extreme but maybe there is a way out of that too. 

Maybe human beings can be more trustworthy about our keeping the earth and be trustworthy to let the LORD lead the way.

Maybe we can heal the environmental devastion, and overcome the destruction of our planet.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Sister, on the doorstep

Sister, sitting on the curb side
You live a life denied
of luxury and comfort
and full of sadness and hurt.

Yet, I see in you, in your dirty clothes
and dirty hair and humble abode
on that doorstep cold and lonely
something special for the poor only.

The LORD of time and all creation
blesses you in your tribulation
because GOD will always stay close nearby,
and listen to your moans and sighs.

GOD loves the poor even when
many will walk by and turn their heads
and I wish for your encouragement and peace
to overcome your difficulties.