"What can stand in the way?"

(Acts 8:26-39)

Two obedient lives intersect;

God dreams in perpendicular.

One crosses boundaries to worship;

other pursues wilderness road, listening.

Isaiah’s scroll spoken into desert void,

eunuch eagerly awaits explanatory echo.

Phillip jogs alongside; offers interpretation.

Ethiopian accepts hitchhiking preacher.

Silent, obedient lamb connected

to willing, crucified savior;

worship, wilderness combine

as perfect salvific duo.

Scripture emboldens both men;

oasis, as non-sequitor, appears;

life-giving sacrament enacted;

living water for all God’s children.

© 2012 Todd Jenkins

Integrity

In a culture of words dressed-up

with glamorous trappings,

repeated, listened to ad nauseam

because they paint pictures

we want to believe,

measure of truth is irrelevant

to these verbal fabrications.

Constructing reality from stories

feeding myths of comfort, security;

shirking creation’s inherent interconnection;

seeking distant laps as blame’s target;

all strategies for overheating supercollider

where cracked facade loses cooling water,

hate’s half-life assaults hope head-on.

Survival not reserved for fittest;

instead for those who recognize

enormity of the tapestry in whom

individual existence is but a thread.

Integrity not so much a virtue

as a way of living with this recognition:

in the end, all stories are one.

© 2012 Todd Jenkins

News, Olds

Media surrounds us now,

print, radio, TV, computer, smart-phone

all seem to inundate somehow,

though no brain’s in the phone I own.

Tickers, trailers, graphic art,

video clips with quotes galore;

stories meant to touch the heart,

leave us hungering for more.

Choose a network, name your format;

up to you what bends your ear.

Wondering what’s up with that:

tuned to what we want to hear.

Ever ask yourself the reason

we choose our favorite news reporters,

accusing others of high treason,

sure they’re no-good news-distorters?

Gospel questions interest vested,

asks what others have to do

with our motives undigested;

relationship’s beyond a few.

What about our “news” is “olds”

feeds voracious angst and fear?

What is it God’s future holds?

Can we get to there from here?

© 2012 Todd Jenkins

Personal to Pastoral

When one becomes the other,

“caring” becomes “cared for.”

It happens often, of course,

but sometimes, some things

make it more obvious.

Like medical professionals

who benefit from a stint on

the other side of the exam table,

personal-become-pastoral

is both eye, heart opening.

Wounded know full well

where Gilead’s balm resides;

hungry souls have GPS

for Eucharist’s feast;

love not lost on least.

© 2012 Todd Jenkins

These Three

Hatred - hell that kills

a little more each day,

leaving less of you

for joy to find.

Fear - anxiety that prevents

hope from getting out of bed

and getting dressed.

Guilt - stuffing that suffocates

the future, anesthetizing

the present by refusing to

let go of the past.

Love - relationship that

expands joy when

you dare to give it away.

Trust - foundation

on which hope operates;

deep place in which

“they” become “we.”

Grace - today's path

toward tomorrow, cut and

cleared by another's gift.

Choose each day which three

you will accompany.

Leave the others behind.

© 2012 Todd Jenkins

Faith, Sight (For Holly Jane)

2 Corinthians 5:7's

“We walk by faith and not by sight.”

takes on whole new meaning with

optic malfunction crashing your party.

Yesterday’s expectations

threaten to crash and burn;

tomorrow’s dreams interrupted by

nightmare of undetermined veracity, duration.

Stepping into, onto darkness,

holding on come hope or high water,

walking toward the dawn.

Jeremiah 29:11’s rope swings:

 “For I know the plans I have for you,”

declares the Lord, “plans to

prosper you and not to harm you,

plans to give you hope and a future.”

Riding shotgun, pirate patched,

praying for courage to let go,

falling into the depths of Grace’s river,

floating in your strong, tender palm.

© 2012 Todd Jenkins

Light Soaking

A light appeared

not long ago;

it wasn’t so much that

I found my way

out of darkness,

or found anything;

but rather that

the gift found me;

or maybe that my

emotional, mental, spiritual

thrashing in life’s deep places

slowed enough for me

to tread water calmly,

finally recognizing that

the very thing against which

I struggled was the river

in which the answers lay.

As more years, experiences pass,

I find myself, if not lighter

in gravitational mass,

better able to free-float.

Oh, the joy to find

myself floating in mercy,

the contentment in realizing

I’ve always been buoyed by love,

the peace of understanding

the eternal saturation of grace!

© 2012 Todd Jenkins