Why?

Why the defensiveness
Why The struggle without end
Why the walls
Why the pain, old friend?


Peace is waiting
Peace outside the door
Peace can be reached
Peace and so much more,


Love bears the load
Love ends the pain
Love breaks the walls
Love dances in the rain.

Strong Enough

I want to be strong

Not just for me, but for you

I want to have faith

To always know what to do

But sometimes my strength

Gets in the way

I push on forward

And forget to pray

Bring me back to your word

Where truth is revealed

Help me to have strength

Strong enough to yield

Email

Two unread emails
Distract me from my work
Ready to delete
And get on with my day
"Hi Grandad" catches the eye
I read, and travel to
A four year old's playground


"I love you Grandad"
"I love you too Gracie"

The Garden

A bent white head
Bobbing above the tomatoes
Gnarled fingers collecting beans
Neat, orderly rows
Without a weed to be seen
A lifetime of experience
Yields a bountiful harvest.

Strength

I don't have the strength

The trial is too deep

My strength is all gone

Yet I can't even sleep

My burden's so heavy 

The load hard to bear

Then a friend steps beside me

And the trouble he shares

I never thought I'd have

The strength for this trial

But the Savior walks with me

Mile after mile

He promised I would never

Bear my burdens alone

He'd be right beside me 

With strength yet unknown

Without this dark valley

I would never have needed

The strength to walk through it

When my faith was depleted

I would never have known

How He'd answer my prayer

How the refuge that before wasn't needed

Would be there.

Saturday Evening

The end of the day
All the tools are put away
Time to sit in my chair
Relax and let down my hair
Work is done.

The Goal

We never know what day

We'll take that final step

Be joined together with our Lord

Complete in Him at last

So let's walk together 

Side by side and

Reaching toward the prize,

His will,our common goal

As we grow close to Him

We are nearer to each other

And the final step we take

Will only be a small one

Change

Change is all around us
Lilies bloom and fade in a day
The slow change as rot creeps 
Down the boards of my porch
Birth, growth, then decay and death
Only one change is different
Changed by God
Means changed for good.

Seasons

Life is a sequence of seasons

Planting, cultivation and harvest

But what about the cold?

As plants need the dormancy of winter

So cold hard times

Make the harvest of life

So much sweeter

The Swimming Hole

Four sets of bare feet running
Down a dusty cowpath through the fields
Through the cooler dappled shade
Toward the murmur of the creek
The sounds of four belly-flop splashes
And summer has begun.

The Middle

The excitement of new birth
The hope at the final door
The beginning and the end
But what about the middle?
That's where the joy comes from
And the pain,
And the peace that is its own reward.

What is the next step

Which way should I go

I need help to decide

How to choose between

The spirit of the Lord

The wisdom of a man

Then clarity

The spirit of the Lord

Creates the wisdom of a man

Saturdays

Mornings on the porch
Coffee and conversation
Time with the woman of my dreams
Always ends too soon
But we'll do it all again
Next Saturday

Freedom

Released from the leash

At no ones beck and call

Free from the clutch and grasp

Escaped from the invisible bonds

I turned the cell phone off

Overload

Ten things need doing now

Time for only one

Everything demands attention

One has priority

Myriad thoughts swirl about

Time for only one

People seek importance

One has priority

Lesser things fall away

Time for only one

With a vertical focus

One has priority

Morning Light

Not my best time of day

Late nights beg for more sleep

Dark and bitter, coffee stirs awakening senses

My friend beckons, spend time with me

Communion through the word

And it was good

One

What attracts us to a heart of surrender

Not the beauty of the jar of clay

The vessel has cracks and flaws

Through which the Spirit light shines

And the light from many fractured jars

Becomes a tapestry of brilliance

To light the world