The matter lost
In the slow concussion
Gentle and steadfast
At the rate of age
And inevitably sure
Is that gravity leaves
A downturn In
The arc of your high
Fireball trajectory
Surely a light against
The sky burned bright
Then out leaving soil
In a barren field scarred
With ashes and debris
To reflect another
Light that still lands
Upon the consequences
Of lessons unlearned
Inadequacy unconfessed
And peace unfound
Tired of feeding pigs, yet
You never made it home
The focus of our time
That which steals the purpose
The substance that could be our reaction
To something divine
Outside our realm of understanding
But fully capable
With infinite potential
To create beyond the scope of our conception
Life abundant
Through grace incomprehensible
Prompting us
If we will let It
To overflow with foolishness
For that is what it is in comparison
To the scales – the units of measure
By which humanity has limited itself
Irrational
God and everything outside of ourselves
Outside of self
Our attention focused on the other
Our attention and time and energy
Spent outside of ourselves
Is equivalent I believe
To Love
To God
To worship God is to let our attention
Let our limitations
Let our reactions and our fear
Loose
Free to run away
and in doing so
Freeing us to trust and place
Our hope
Our time
Our hands
Our feet
Directly on the path that He has drawn out
To reveal His glory through
To love others
To serve others
To focus your attention outside
Of ourselves
Is to love God
To worship God
To touch the heart of Jesus
And to remove ourselves
From our own grip
With which we cling so tightly
To sin and the death
The absence of life
That it brings
Lord teach me in each moment
Of each day going forward to
Look outside of myself
To let go of myself
To release my fear
And grab Your hand
As it is extended out to me
Each day in need
Empty my hands
Oh Lord
So that I am free to react
To focus my attention
To spend my time
Outside of myself
Outside of sin
But, in You
In Love
Like canvas stretched tightly over the frame
Imposing upon each gessoed fiber strain
Constitution’s vulnerabilities
Raked and now exposed for the world to seize
Endless hours spent chasing carrot tails
While stuttering words and accruing fails
Squandering away these precious few hours
Tasked to preserve the substance of flowers
Regardless the cost for vain veneers paid
I find my own dignity worn and splayed
With all cupboards bare
The absence clear shows
I have nothing more
To give from behind doors that only close
The gap in synchrony
between my head and feet
Both entangling a soul
though tethered free indeed
My earthbound walk painted
more like a stagger and lurch
Between eternal heights
and a cyclical curse
Ever failing to learn
lessons from missteps made
But for Your favor unearned
I’d end at the grave
Until You return in
this condition I’ll wait
Moving onward and upward
death penalty stayed
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m e a n d e r s 