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Hatred. This is the
smoke filling your lungs and
this will destroy you.

Grace. This is the
translucent air of
ethereal light, but its
beauty will disarm you.

Gentle breath calls me to
its side. "Please, let it
stop and let Me be."

fly, gather, be

You see the birds and
think they are free, but
every wandering wing has
a home in the trees

And what are wings if no
hearts pledge their
love to me, no
home with which in
peace to sleep

I must find my rest
in Love, I must
make my home in
Love, I must heal
myself with Love.

Death

Lord, rinse clean my eyes, I
need healing.
Christ, feel the wound on my side, I
fear I am still bleeding

Why do my hands still tremble, wake the
sleep of old wounds? Why
in the mystery of dark hearts do I
resurrect death, with its
fingers laced in black deceit?

O, were I to be freed from the
shackles of the dragon's teeth and
his graveyard of a million crooked
fiends extending their gnarled
arms toward me——would I find
peace then or be tormented with a
freedom much too free?

Soul, it is not enough to be free.

photo

stir.

What to do with calloused heart? When I
glance down at my chest to the pit that
has been carved, a center that drowns
hate and hurt in raging swirl
How am I to love while my fists clench the blood
spilt by the words of one with whom my heart had so closely
beat with, lungs with whom I so closely breathe with?
Do my eyes tell you stories? Do you see the wounds your
hands have created? We all say we are human,
finitely fragile and mortally weak, but
from what I have seen there is an
infinite power—we do not know the sorrow that
our hands can inflict

By God, I want to hurt you back! But
grace restrains my hands to be, and
instead of darkness blurring, He
washed my vision with the
fluids of His heart—compassion
and while my heart beats hurt, my
heart beats sorrow back for you

I read that Paul said love
compels him. Well I misread and I thought that
love was constraining, but
the Lord has shown me that this is
all under the frame of Christ-like living because I
am controlled by Love, each
action carefully checked and packaged and sent into
human air and earth and heart. And I
have heard it said that love is patient, love
is kind. Love, though it sees itself hurting, bleeding,
never stops to nurse its wound, never
kneels to its own vengeance, but
is only concerned with giving and never with
taking, always concerned with
healing and never with hating. Love seeks not
its own, its comfort, its convenience, but in the pile of
broken human bones it desires, it stirs that life might LIVE and
you might too. My friend, forgive me, my ribs cage a soul
shipwrecked to the shore of human despondency, but
I pray for you, I think about you, I grieve for you, that our
weary broken eyes may be given heaven’s vision, and
though imperfect we may be, its grace that
permits a friendship to be. Let it breathe, let it breathe. And friend,
We’ll be ok.

photo

hovering.

What is the way that a
wound begins to heal?
When all I saw was brokenness,
torn limbs and bloody sins, You
reached through the fractures and
like intangible air the bruise began to remedy
redemption ready, incisions to the gash rendered
restored sanity to a mind filled with
ghosts of past, present, future tenses
And fingers delicate as flowers float
down from the sky's haven and
wash my wounds with sweetness
Mercy's mist, come
wash me, when
death and sin were but
dust in my hands, Your
Word puts life on my bones and
envelops the empty cages with
living breath
breathing flesh

Why are You good to me?
Why are You good?
Because You are grace, and
grace knows no bounds

Inward

I look at you and
wonder if you have
ever hated me
too, like I
have hated you

I can't understand me, but--

you.

Why is it the
more we try to mend the
farther these ships in
canyons drift?

Why are we like shadows, joined
by the foot, connected but helplessly
without heart?

You cast the shadow and I
catch the dark side of
the sun, but why am I
the only one stepped on and
caught?

Please, don't be kind to me.
Don't be kind to me. It
breaks my heart and I
can't find my way
back to you.