Bolder Dash

(For Curt's pray-ers and all who face desperate circumstances)

Fear assaults halls of prayer,
intimidates with balderdash,
“What good is petition
if it doesn’t come true?”

Reason peeks from behind Anxiety,
calculates known sequencing,
concurs with Fear’s assessment,
“Not very likely to happen.”

Faith blows in from four corners,
laughs at the absurdity,
“Prayer isn’t an exercise in probability;
but rather one of possibility.

Hope musters up from the deeps,
rolls away the stone of doubt,
“It’s not really prayer until
it approaches the preposterous!”

Courage starches the sails,
squeezes adrenal glands,
“Now is not the time for timidity;
it’s time to make a bolder dash.”

Dove descends in fire and cloud,
voice of gentle thunder,
“Unleash your wildest prayers of healing
for those whose faith & hope are fading!”

Ours is not the task
to determine what will or won’t,
but to fiercely ask for what we need
and wholly trust the holy Giver.

© 2011 Todd Jenkins

The Innocents

Ever notice how God
never dwells on blame?
Yet it’s a powerful tool of self destruction
and the beginning of the end
for many fragile relationships.

When guilt is allowed to overshadow grace,
everything that God intends is subverted;
as if knowing whom to blame, self or others,
will change the way we think and feel
or turn back the clock somehow.

It cannot be the will of God
for the innocents to suffer
or those who love them
to accept the burden
of what’s beyond their control.

When evil falls like acid rain
and scorches tender skin,
I curse the pain, wail in grief,
and shout before the hill,
“Come down from that cross,

hold this child in tender arms
and breathe your spirit deep
into this family’s broken heart!
Stop the clock – yea, turn it back,
and Lazarus us once more!

© 2011 Todd Jenkins