At times brooding in the shadow of the night

Gently standing in the morning light

Imago born

Wrestled out of thought and form

Careful of your ego norm

Hidden in tight cocoon

Strengthened wings take flight and delight

Watching created thing

You stand alone and look

Pondering created space

Lamenting from another place

Listening to your tone

Your rhythm

Your rhyme

Searching for meaning

Wondering always

Is this your time?

71/03/2018

Dissonance

Liminality in intent

In and out of focus

In betweenness

Stuckness

Blowing in the wind

Cocreation defined

Divine

Touching time

Movements flutterings

Light shining

Shimmerings through the voile

Just tiny glimpses

Droplets of hope

Breaking open

So ever carefully

Joy

06/06/2022

In response to Lent 2021, the above audio recording reflects some of the the intensity of 2020. I have subsequently found resonance with the “Lent dying that we might live” article by Ruth Haley Barton https://transformingcenter.org/2018/03/lent-dying-might-live/

Whether our world is more chaotic and unjust than ever before is a matter for debate.  While each new discovery, invention and innovation brings hope they also bring added problems that can make things worse. But this has always been the case, the storyline of human kind is consistent in the drama of existentialist crisis, cataclysmic destruction and competing eschatological passion. The world-views of the power elite dominate.

In all of this it would seem the global power base has shifted to the right, to nationalism with a general abandonment of multilateral values. Although there is an argument to justify the shift, nationalism has never produced world peace and Shalom. At the heart of the matter is the self interest of the individual with an instinct for survival of the fittest, producing might is right and a culture of autocracy.

The erosion of democracy among the super powers and the growing shadow criminality of the politics of business and the business of politics makes for some despair. While the justice system and free media bravely play their role there is concern that democracy as we experience it is not producing justice and development.  Many voters in fact, to avoid responsibility in addressing their complex world, prefer to abdicate their voice to a personality cult. The man of the hour full of power fueling fear and hatred gets support and in the flurry of a Tweet in our digital age gets a platform from which to communicate and secure a vote.

But as we reflect on the Gospel and the Kingdom we have intruding into our cynical sensibilities the over arching conversation and dialogue with God.  In the timelessness of the incarnation of Christ we have such comfort.  While everything is changing nothing changes except the movement of the Spirit deep within our being.  What seems apparent is that in order to respond to the world as we find it, we are forced to respond to matters of calling, vocation and purpose. Fueling this great adventure is the embrace of ‘today’. Abandonment of the past through forgiveness and the holding at bay of tomorrow through faith and in so doing we are present to the “now”.

How we do this, of course, is the big puzzle.  What has been inspirational for me is the thought that the picture on the puzzle box may indeed predate conception, held within the consciousness of a creator who creates us and lets us discover his creation in our world, in ourselves and in each other.

As we give up creating God and indeed ourselves we  are able to find that which we are born to discover: that God is God,  that we are created, called and known and that we are loved.

“If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things”.  ESV John 3verse12

Building castles in the sand

Red bucket and spade in hand

Child!

God is holding your hand

Today together building castles in the sand

Smell of sea and wind

Sun reflecting off the frothy waves of time

Gently touching, greeting your castle’s border walls

Practice prayer presence

Rhythms and routines of the mind

Resting

Watching

Waiting

Christ our tide of infinity

Tomorrow will be another day

So go with your red bucket and spade

Today

And build with Him sand castles in the sand

I see you

Smell you

Your sweat of indulgent privilege

Unwashed by time

Repulsed I cringe

Nowhere to hide

Stale rancor I find

In the mirror I stare.

Stagnant role to wear

Your colour palette imposed

Shades of truth defined

Hidden in pride

Constructed context

Your roots have grown

Impregnating racial hyperbole.

More sinister You carnal soul!

You crossed land and sea in pursuit

Sovereign borders in disrespect

To find in time unwanted courtesy returned

Seekers of a better life

Betrayed they come

Bringing change

National identity declined.

White supremacy

Arrogance defined

You treacherous foe

What I hate most

Is your legacy entrenched

Colour coded consciousness

Always Rejection

Always the same

You awful brute

Always without shame!

13/11/2018