When All Has Changed

When All Has Changed

The memory will blur with the fade of time.
I will be unable to restore,to sharpen the blurred edges of that picture,
seen from a far-off height:
the valley of pines I know lay far down in the northeast,
the endless distance where the peaks never stopped mounting, one beyond another,
snowy, barren, alive…
But I cannot wholly forget the cold wind as the breath was draw from me
and carried into open skies.
No one breathes here but the mountains

Mountains
daring me to be, to sit among them
and feel my smallness…to feel
in the stillness
the absolute weight
that must move the earth though standing still.

It’s so quiet here…
Listen as the ancient speaks
Unmoving
Immense rock thrust far above us,
far beyond us now.
It’s all that we can see
surrounded by titans of standing stone
row upon jagged row,
snowy now in summer
with waterfalls and stony rivulets falling
into aquamarine glacial lakes,
the ice-melt a river that would take us,
if we let it,
down beyond this panorama
into the valleys we once thought we knew

‘Til now
when all has changed
because for an hour we stood on the shoulder of something
never made by human hands,
never aware of our tread.
These the ever-watchmen of all time,
witnesses of tumult and power,
await with the enduring patience of stone
another end
another Day
of Glory to surpass these that are but the granite sands of an hour glass.
Other Hands carved them out.
Other Hands hold them now.
And one day we’ll know
that other Hands can move mountains,
and plunge them into the sea.

Going Home

Going Home

I can’t wait to go home.
It’s far too quiet in this noise,
this isolating, jarring din.
Staying here, I can’t hear
anything – I am lost
beneath a cacophony
of a thousand voices
telling me who I am,
and who I am not,
where I lack and where I want.
So, I’m going home to
my Father’s arms, to the
quiet warmth that speaks.
Standing on that solid ground
beneath the fiery stars,
I’ll hear Heaven sigh.
Breathless in the cold night,
Alone but not alone.
You are who You are
And I am created:
myself
in You.

Fight the Waves

Fight the Waves

Fight for this child, this child You have found
where I sit in midnight, yearning to belong.
I fight the waves, so you are never drowned.

Waves of motion devour the depths they pound.
I am fearful, always frail, ever wrung.
Fight for this child, this child You have found.

Floods won’t change My name, forever crowned.
Won’t you see that My love suffers long?
I fight the waves, so you are never drowned.

Do You watch my way? Do You hear a sound
beneath pressing waters where there’s no tongue?
Fight for this child, this child You have found

in a place unseen where I was bound.
In fear, I may not believe this is sung:
I fight the waves, so you are never drowned.

I’ve seen you there, in the dark, on the ground,
Watching your heart shatter at a song.
Fight for this child, this child You have found.
I fight the waves, so you are never drowned.

until the day breaks fully in the east

from January 3, 2009

I spent some hours with Jen last night...such a sweet time talking about God's amazing Word, life and our place in it, friendships, relationships, grace, healing, our hearts, who we are, and the God that comes through for us in the middle of the night.
And in the meanderings of our searching of the Word and self-realization, we came to something that blew me away. In the Old Testament - particularly Jeremiah and Hosea - God says to His people that He will "heal their faithlessness" and "heal their apostacy." He speaks about all the disgusting, hurtful, destructive things that they do, all their sin, and says that He will heal it...
I don't know about you, but that is kind of a radical thought to me, a very different view of sin than we tend to think that God has or than we have ourselves. Sin as a sickness to be healed...Let me ask you this: would you ever smack a sick person and tell them to be well again? Of course not. You give them medicine. You take care of them. You rub soothing ointments into sores and wrap them carefully. It's loving. It's tender. God sees our sin as a disease, as wounds to be healed (check out Isaiah 1), not merely as something to be punished. He sees it as something damaging to us that brings us pain. And it's this sin, this damage, this pain that he wants to change. How compassionate and gracious the heart of God that doesn't seek simply to punish sin, but to heal it. With this God, there is so much room for our hearts.

"'Return, O faithless sons, I will heal your faithlessness.'" - Jeremiah 3:22
"'I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick" - Ezekiel 34:16
Also check out Psalm 107. It's amazing.

“Ten Thousand Angels” by Derek Webb

how long you have traveled in darkness weeping
no rest in language, no words to speak
but there in the wreckage beneath bricks and bindings
Love has come, Love has come for you

against the night sky of your waiting
your face is like starlight when he walks in
everything worth keeping comes through dying
Love has come, Love has come for you

so lift up your heart now, to this unfolding
all that has been broken will be restored
here runs deep waters for all who are thirsty
Love has come, Love has come for you

ten thousand angels will light your pathway
until the day breaks fully in the East
they will surround you and make your way straight
Love has come, Love has come for you
Love has come, Love has come for you