In 1997, Dave and I were a year into building a youth ministry at our former church, for kids our son’s age.  As part of our program we wanted to surround them with a community of adults and parents and use some physical challenges to echo the spiritual challenges that they would face...

As the moth that
dances to the flame,
this flame itself is winged;
a shimmering translucence
of sunlight glistening
as through miniature
stained-glass windows,
the world its chapel,
the lily stalk the altar 
it returns to time and again
to curtsy in obeisance,
measuring Nones
in nanoseconds,
unaware of...

It’s three in the afternoon,
and a gloomy pall, orange and thick,
hovers overhead as in the last days
of Pompeii.
                    An unholy eclipse,
choking and burning the eyes,
cloaks already...

The world is whistling,
chittering, chattering,
twittering and humming
as a barely-breeze riffles
through trees above me:
red-tipped limbs
of eucalyptus framed
by the vibrant green
of maple leaves, and
one lone insect
glowing golden,
a minuscule helicopter
shot through with sun,
rising slowly
to lift and light...

Last week I mused that our political involvement should be as trees planted by living water…so what is living water?  Jesus said to the woman at the well, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you...

When the psalmist writes in Psalm 146, “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.” is he saying that we are to take no interest in politics and government?  That we should trust God to mystically and magically work it all out?     ...

Disappointment sits
like a pit in my stomach,
a sucker punch that crumples me
in the dust of dejection.
It feels unanswerable, unalterable,
and in the deep dark hours it is.
The mind whirrs and worries,
a parade of horribles marching by
until my mental gears
are broken by fear and fretting
run amok from...

Is it time to panic yet
when sharks fall out of the sky,
when cars roll backwards up a 
hill and krill eat pizza pies?

Foxes’ heads get stuck in jars,
and robots are writing plays;
castanets click-clack in trees
and bees dance roundelays.

Oh, I have heard of stranger
things than cowboys...

Seeds that fall on rocky ground
still strive and strain to burst forth green
and shed their tight confinement, 

but they might feel the curse of Cain
as spores spill, muting tongues that
parched and exiled go unquenched;

for voice was made to sing His praise
and hands designed to write; all built...

I tried to prune my roses
but the thorns were mean to me.
They jabbed me and they stabbed me;
I had gashes, two or three.

I fought the battle bravely
while with their stems I wrestled,
but among the sprays and vines
small swords and rapiers nestled. 

Some gardeners enjoy the
scent of these fragrant...