Know-Love-Obey God

When you look back at what’s behind
and remember everything vile you did,
every one you poisoned
with snobbish arrogance,
disdain and disrespect,
jealousy and unforgiveness,
aloof unkindness
When you remember the moments,
the minutes and hours you wasted, the hefty
chunks of life that you could have
spent better that day, that year
When you keep looking behind
and hear what you shouldn’t have said
and turn [...]

The High Calling book club:
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die,
by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Laura Boggess leads our Oct. 25 discussion on the “Sticy Advice” section. (Since my copy of the book doesn’t have this section, I decided to post on Chapter 6.)
When circuit designers talk shop, they talk power [...]

(In consideration of Matthew 5:23-24, and in preparation for a worship conference I’m praying for and attending this weekend.)
It has happened in the past
that I have caused pain
or offense with
my words
or lack of words
or the way I have spoken
or . . . ?
Yet I was ignorant
of the deed.
You whom I have called
friend, have I
caused you
pain?
Have [...]

I had a fear of hydrogen peroxide. The pain from a knife cut or a knee leaving behind skin on a gravelly asphalt road was bad enough, but the injury was just the beginning. There was still the cleaning to endure: a wet cloth wiping off dirt and dried blood, or tweezers plucking [...]

For the High Calling Blogs book club:
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die,
by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Laura Boggess leads our Sep. 20 discussion on chapter three, “Concrete.”.
We were backpacking in September, so I should have expected it. Everything was dead, or dying. Branches wilted and drooped. It was [...]

It was the first day of April, and I was a fool
to think the fire would not burn again.
Months ago, months ago it scorched
blisters bright red with its poison
and its pain. Helpless, I confessed
and cried gasping tears, My God!
and He heard, and He healed.
Fire extinguished, safe again,
toxic black and choking smoke blown clear.
Months of [...]

White
in our home
white
is our Christmas
paper and porcelain
white

With white
we remember
not only His birth
but the purpose
of the Incarnation
Why He came

White is the Lamb
perfect white Lamb
taking His cup
drinking
for us
thorns piercing
blood flowing
blood from the Son of God
amazing, this blood
thick with love
though red
it washes white
White
is our Christmas
Worship
is our Christmas
songs from lips
and piano keys
black and white

Worship with gifts
to those who tell
of [...]

High Calling Blogs Book Club:
The Wisdom of Wilderness, by Gerald G. May
Chapter Six: “Violence at Smith’s Inlet”
Who can read this chapter without cringing? Such detestable, vile acts. Such violence from humans and animals, to humans and animals.
May said in a previous chapter that fear leads to gratitude. Violence, too, led me to [...]