It’s a blur, a mist, a memory, as my life unfolds before my eyes. So tired, so weary, yet living, breathing I am sustained. For every breath is a blessing from Him. What’s happening to me? Inside, around me, things are still going. I am not standing still yet I don’t understand. How can people depend on me? I am ears, eyes, understanding… but hands, feet, mouth? I don’t feel it now. Alone yet with. Together yet issolated. Community yet solitude. Where am I and what do I want? Awake or asleep? Freedom or control? How do I know? Listen, watch… hear see… feel, understand… experience, believe…
Stand still. The trees ahead and the bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger, Must ask it permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.
I’m standing in the ocean, waves pounding me trying to knock out my footing as I dig my toes into the shifting sand.
Pounding pounding… one side then the next. sometimes above and sometimes below. I am forced to give and to take Yet every inch of my body joining together in united effort to staaaay
Standing
Stay strong, Nate, stay strong, You are that immovable force that can look the waves in the face With compassion and presence Breathing, breathing, breathing that life giving Spirit wind that gives the strength to live
Imagine a generation giving up on national voting Living in the belief that nationalism And the national political platform Will make no lasting difference in this world… And be very afraid.
Imagine a people who have changed their priorities Who think that communities living differently And taking the words, living, loving, and politic of Jesus seriously Will make the lasting difference… And be very afraid.
What if organizational churches don’t make money? What if capitalism was on the rocks? What if there was revolution of love? What if communities focused local and provided for each other? What if there was a balance of resources across the globe? What if we helped take care of the world’s dying, homeless, and hurting rather than wiping out their cities and killing their innocents? What if there is no American Dream? What if there is no hope for a “Christian America?” Be very afraid.
And then consider where the fear comes from. Hope placed in anything other than that which looks like Jesus must surely be misplaced hope. Hope placed in any government will let us down again and again. There is no reason to fear if our hope lies somewhere else. Our priority on something greater Should not falter in the changing tides of politics, economics, or oppression. When we can live in this seemingly upside down and backwards way, We no longer need be afraid.
I talked to Jesus last week
she told me that she and her family did not have
money for their hotel room
Two nights
Jesus was homeless with two kids.
Could I help?
5… 10 dollars… from each person.
Giving Jesus a place to sleep.
He called me a few days later.
This time saying he’s been sleeping in his car
For the last six months.
Jesus… sleeping in a car.
Who knew about this?
Not the people in his church.
He told me that from sleeping sitting up,
his legs were so swollen
he couldn’t get his pants on in the morning.
And who knew? Who cared to ask?
Jesus… everywhere I look.
In their eyes, their faces.
And how often I look away…
There must be a phone number I can give him to call
A shelter I can send him to.
Better that than let go of my own life for him.
