distinctly askew

God of slow shaping and sudden, shocking change.

Keep me awake to you presence and activity. Keep me from falling asleep!

Lead me in Your way so that I might learn to love fearlessly, to work fruitfully, to follow closely.

May I be surprised, in those moments of rest, to look and see how close we’ve grown, and how far you’ve brought me.

Amen.

Dust and ashes are my friends,
The tools of repentance and rest.
They help me turn away from
the distractions and put down
The needful things.
All those anxieties,
Those plans, and dreams.

They are the tools I might use as I sneak away
With the One who calls my name.
I go with Him to encounter Love
In the hope that I might be changed
Dust and ashes are my friends,
The tools of repentence and rest.

This world is not as it should be.
Darkness reigns, death, exploitation, evil.

Some of us respond by hoarding
possessions, education, resources
with which we construct a barrier
to keep us safe in our own faked Eden.

Even here death stalks waiting
for his moment and strikes
with a sickness here, an accident there.
We’re surprised when it happens,
but darkness reigns.
And all the while it grows within us
as our defences crush brothers and sisters.

Others choose defiance

and rage against the dying light.
Protesters, medics, poets,
teachers, soldiers, pastors,
artists, visionaries, prophets,
they stubbornly declare

“Another world is possible!”

Here’s to them;
The rag tag resistance
And here’s to their homeless King.
He took the darkness full on and cried

“Another world is here!”

I’m with them,
I’m with Him.

Put down the defences.
Join the resistance.
I’m for the dawn.

Thinking about the stories of Jesus, the leper and the centurion from Matthew 8.

Wherever Jesus went people were loved and suffering was defeated.
Seems that is what he trained his disciples to do as well.

Who are you calling me to love?
Where are you calling me to destroy evil?

Give me strength and courage God.

A little praying out of my thoughts after a few great days at college.

Jesus you pissed people off.

The religious, the power holders and the freedom fighters; somehow you managed to confound each one of them.

You overturned temple tables, crossed taboos and loved with such spectacular disregard for the way things are done. Many were deeply attracted to you, but even your closest friends seem to been befuddled and infuriated.

And I think I know you? I would dare to believe I’ve heard all your stories and might be familiar with what you will do.

Forgive me for co-opting you Lord. And offend me once again. Overturn my holy tables and disabuse we with your radical love.

Then maybe I can become a little more like you. Amen.

Teach me to treat this day as a gift, to seek only what is worth finding and to leave worrying about the rest behind. Amen

Inspired by todays reading on Wordlive.