Posts Tagged With: Poem

Use By Date

On jar lids

See how the flowers of the field grow

packet edges,
in neat computer printing
are dates:
“Use by …”
“Best Before …”
 
A sign of finite life,
Limited use,
and inevitable corruption.
 
The average life span for men
in Australia is.
79.7 years.
 
Is that a “best before”
or “use by” date?
 
Or is every second
a gift
to be cherished
and lived,
whether many or few?
 
 
For there is no 
“Use By” date”
in the Kingdom of God.
Categories: christian, Christianity, Faith, Poem, poetry | Tags: , , , , , | 3 Comments

The Un World

Disparate souls
wandering.
Hearts seeking
relationship.
Beings made
to relate and join and
celebrate community,
un-warmed,
un-connected,
un- celebrated
 
Connections bound
by rigid rules,
by unconsidered traditions,
and lifeless patterns.
“Insanity” it is said,
“Is doing the same thing
Over and over again.
Expecting different results.”
 
The spark of God,
the frisson of Spirit
and life enhancing
bonds
ached for
so that soul meets soul,
spirit, spirit
and being, being.
 
Hence the Divine
may shine
brighter
clearer
and eternally
for the un- generation.
Categories: christian, Christianity, Church, Faith, Poem, poetry, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Growing a Worldview

Growing up
Parents
Experiences
Values
Bible
Personality
Sin
Society
Teachers
Media
Faith
Friends
Family
Church
Books
… can shape
the way we see
the world.
Which lenses should we keep
and polish
and which distorting specs
throw away?
To see
as Jesus
wants us to see
and feel as He would feel
and do as he did
for the world in which we live?
 
Categories: christian, Christianity, Devotional, Poem, poetry, Uncategorized, World Views | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Baby – A Calling

Helpless!
Following the path
of God incarnate
the child enters
into life
with genetic markers
stumbling parents
and
future choices.
 
Already,
her calling
is clear and sharp.
She cries praise to God,
and gazes in amazement
at every light and face,
movement and sound.
Wonder fills her eyes
as her mouth explores shape
and texture
while arms and hands
flail with random abandon.
 
She will be taught
in time
but now
she teaches us
the naïve joy of life
and newness
trust and hope.
She preaches a gurgling word
straight from the Maker.
Categories: Child Theology, christian, Christianity, Devotional, Faith, Poem, poetry | Tags: , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Pushing Through Curtains

Pushing back through curtains
upon curtains
billowing in a foggy past
there have been
people whose sepia faces
bring back faint memories
of times and places
now hovering
between reality
and imagination.
There were
school yard boasts
and pranks
too energetic now
for the memory to understand
Friends gone
in distance and death.
Vocations
have come and gone
and come again.
My first students
now have faces
as worn as mine
but their fresh faces
live in their children.
Years hold blessings and pain
hopes and failures
joy and aches.
But when I turn
And stop pushing
At the curtains
There is a future
a timelessness
… and a perfection.
Categories: christian, Devotional, Faith, Poem, poetry, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Looking and Seeing

Looking is not seeing.
Speaking is not thinking.
Hearing is not listening.
 
How do we
look at,
speak to
and hear the world?
 
How do we
make sense
and meaning?
 
How do we
make decisions
and commitments?
 
Are we standing
on shifting sand
or solid ground?
 
Is our sight focussed?
Anchored?
Is our hearing
sharp and clear?
Are our voices strong 
and sure …
 
Rivetted
to the Word of truth.
Categories: christian, Christianity, Devotional, Faith, Poem, poetry | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The God Particle

Eureka!
Higgs boson,
The proof at last …
we think.
We found debris,
left overs,
after recreating the beginning of time.
 
The God particle …
The trigger
for all of this,
us,
was found
beneath Geneva
 
But wait,
didn’t the Creator
reveal Himself in word and deed
creation and book,
self and cross.
 
Not just a particle,
but all of God
has been here 
all along.
Categories: christian, Christianity, Devotional, Faith, Higgs boson, Poem, poetry | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

Blessing

Giving self,
freely.
Seeking good
for others.
Putting the ego
second
and seeking
my neighbour’s welfare.
 
How hard!
To deny self.
Come last.
My own desires
wants and cravings –
unmet.
 
It’s unnatural.
Un-human.
 
But …
it is
Divine.
 
 
Categories: christian, Christianity, Devotional, Faith, Poem, poetry | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

By Faith in Christ I Walk With God – John Newton

Yesterday I posted one of Newton’s hymns which was not Amazing Grace. I couldn’t help

Newton’s grave in Olney. It was moved over 100 years ago from London when his grave was in the path of Tube extensions.

myself. Here is another. What I love about his words/poetry is the intersection of Biblical truth with life’s experience. This hymn also has echoes of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. The words may be quaint with their archaic usage but the truth and meaning ring clear. Thanks once again to cyberhymnal.org.

By faith in Christ I walk with God,
With Heav’n, my journey’s end, in view;
Supported by His staff and rod,
My road is safe and pleasant too.

I travel through a desert wide
Where many round me blindly stray;
But He vouchsafes to be my Guide,
And will not let me miss my way.

Though snares and dangers throng my path,
And earth and hell my course withstand;
I triumph over all by faith,
Guarded by His almighty hand.

The wilderness affords no food,
But God for my support prepares;
Provides me every needful good,
And frees my soul from wants and cares.

With Him sweet converse I maintain,
Great as He is I dare be free;
I tell Him all my grief and pain,
And He reveals His love to me.

Some cordial from His Word He brings,
Whene’er my feeble spirit faints;
At once my soul revives and sings,
And yields no more to sad complaints.

I pity all that worldlings talk
Of pleasures that will quickly end;
Be this my choice, O Lord, to walk
With Thee, my Guide, my Guard, my Friend.

Categories: christian, Christianity, Devotional, Faith, hymns, Poem, poetry | Tags: , , , , , | 3 Comments

Mirror, Mirror

iPhone, iPhone

Webcam, Webcam

 
My heart darts like a cursor,
a mouse move on a monitor,
but my heart is a “blue” screen.
Who or what can I trust?
Teachers?
Parents?
Wikipedia?
 
Are my friends really “friends”
Is a” like” really  a “Like”?
 
My home is the 
Internet
A paradise of Apps
all about me.
 
But why … ?
Can I even trust myself?
Will my “Profile” or “Gravatar” please?
 
Why is the mirror/iPhone/ screen
so awful?
Do I really look like that?
Will my friends still “like” me?
 
 
 
Categories: Poem, poetry, Reflections, Uncategorized | Tags: , , | 6 Comments

Blog at WordPress.com.