You alone

There was no One else

From the cradle to the grave

You watched, listened, carried

I give You back my voice

I give You back my brokenness

I give You back my fierceness 

Though You are invisible

Your are ever-present

You armed me

You trained me

You counseled me

I give You back my voice

You alone

All things pass

Nothing lasts

Everything dies

Maybe only these truths endure forever

The castle is in ruins

The mighty oak felled by the storm

The hero’s statue taken down 

The wisdom books forgotten 

Do not cry

Do not mourn

All things return

Some things you don’t want to last

Everything lives again

The relief after finding a lost child

Discharge from the hospital

Deserved verdict in the courtroom

That is the resurrection

The beginning of beauty in the ashes

Meeting an intelligent, kind girl 

The resolution of a thousand fruitless searches

That is the resurrection

Not just life after death

But life within life itself

A reminder of the love and faithfulness of God

That is the resurrection

If the breaking is happening

Or has already happened

Know that it is release

Of suffering in all its indescribable agony

But also beauty, often the hidden

Yours and what has been seen, felt, experienced

The desert sunrises

Lightning striking mountaintops

Sweet and rare compassionate understanding

The still, small voice of God that comforts in fear

And the hope that can never be defeated

This is how it works

Take it all 

Or none at all 

There is no in-between

For every perfect chord

There’ll be a broken string

Word of wisdom, a fool’s mistake

Kissing the sky, a humiliating kneel

A child’s birth, a waiting – or worse

Morning, night

Intimacy, loneliness 

Vindication, crushing defeat

Hope, despair

Take it all

Or none at all

There is no other way

Allahuakhbar

Only God is great

In the midst

Of suffering

Men’s machinations

Manipulations

Plans and schemes

Cowardice

Folly

All that crumbles to the ground

Ashes and dust in the wind

He is still great

Sovereign Creator

Mercifull Ruler

Gracious Judge

Faithful Fatter

Allahuakhbar

Only God is great

Eight hundred and fifty against one

But who’s really counting?

Where a landscape

Resembling the lower circles of hell

Sap whatever life or hope remain

The twin blood stained altars beckon, beg

Their respective gods for vindication and relief

And as the empty chants and dances

Fade away in futile and fearful exhaustion 

The vanguard of the storehouses of rain start to fall

She moves in mysterious ways

In the pain, she comforts

Chaos, brings order

Insecurity, reassures

Doubt, renews faith

She is the blanket of light

That wraps in the dark night of despair

The bottomless well in the drought

She whispers certainty in impossibility

Commands the storm to obey and behave

Leads the way out of the thicketed maze

She moves in mysterious ways

It’s everything you think it is and isn’t

The songs and stories are all true

And a lot more 

It is seeing and blindness

Frees your spirit to dream

While bringing you to your knees

The arrow that wounds deeply

After it has been loosed by a master archer

It will drown, consume, crush

Even kill you

But it is life

Living water

Stronger than the bonds of death

What grows in the dark?

Mushrooms

Tigers

Babies

Depth

Faith