Category Archives: poetry
Stay in the presence of God
I love the way you worship, I told him.
Because I did.
I enjoyed the freedom he had
to raise his hands
shout his praise
demonstrate his love of God Almighty.
I get embarrassed, I told him.
Because I do.
I worry about what others might think
if they saw me with raised hands
speaking out
demonstrating my love.
I love the way you worship, I told him.
But … How?
How do you dismiss
what others might think
what others might say
how they might react to your free expression?
He said:
Stay in the presence of God.
When your mind wanders
Stay in the presence of God.
When your heart questions
Stay in the presence of God.
When your spirit darkens
Stay in the presence of God.
When your strength fails
Stay in the presence of God.
Stay.
Where you are.
Where God is.
Hovering over you
A covering over you
Protecting you
flames will not burn you
waters will not overwhelm you.
Stay and worship.
I Am not A.I.
A.I., you and I are different.
I feel.
I feel
the rays of the sun warming my face,
the chill of the cold deep in my bones,
the pressure of your hand holding mine
and mine, resting in yours.
I feel
the jitters when test scores are posted,
the wrenching when news isn’t good,
the twang when I know I really shouldn’t
and the tap when I know I really should.
God didn’t create me artificially.
God created me realistically:
real parts,
real thoughts,
real sensations,
real desires,
real hopes,
real needs.
Do I dare feel?
Am I willing?
Not just to touch the hand
that reaches out,
but to take it?
Dear God,
there are places I’d rather not go.
I still feel them;
I still remember them;
I am not safe there.
You, A.I.,
You are safe everywhere.
not bothered by sensation,
not saddled with emotion,
not addled by fear or foreboding.
Fear is a place only humans go,
only humans can go,
human beings,
humans being.
The Lord of life takes us there…
and brings us through.
“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27-28)
A.I. was made for man, not man for A.I.
So the Son of Man is Lord even of the A.I.
What if we all claimed our anointing?
I want to do more than meet expectations or even exceed expectations.
I want to chart a new course.
I want to do things no one has done in a way no one has yet conceived.
Not just to do them or to say that I have done them, but because…
I want to lead people into a new day in this new way,
a way that feels old, like an old friend they know and have always known.
Love goes that deep.
I want to go there.
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” ~ Luke 4:18-19
