Thursday, June 28, 2012

"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

Monday, June 25, 2012

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

Thursday, June 21, 2012

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

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

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

Friday, June 15, 2012

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

Monday, June 11, 2012

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

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

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