Born on Third

(Living the American Dream)

I must have hit a triple,

'cause here I am on third.

Of course I wasn't born here;

that whole idea's absurd!

Daddy is the umpire,

mama cooks the books;

but isn't that the way

everybody's life looks?

It's true what they say,

"It's lonely at the top."

When all your views are down,

it's really hard to stop.

I've got more stuff than friends;

that doesn't really matter.

It's hard to let your guard down

when your wallet's getting fatter.

One day I'm going to slow down

and be that kind of guy

people want to hang with;

for now I'm kind of shy.

I worry what they're thinking

about the things I say,

and whether they will judge me

or try to take my pay.

It's hard to feel normal

when you're such a special guy.

I do my best to fake it;

I'm usually pretty sly.

Tried ordinary once

but then I got burned.

No one would acknowledge

the luxuries I'd earned.

It's nice here on third;

I'm such a go-getter.

When I steal home,

it'll be even better!

© 2013 Todd Jenkins

Tabernacle

Revelation 21:3 uses  σκηνή,

or "tabernacle" two times,

describing God's abode (noun) 

and abiding (verb) in our midst.

God is completely mobile and holy;

two essential characteristics

of  amazing grace and love.

Mobility transcends the single location

of our worship sanctuaries.

Holy is the divine spice that infuses

every element of the universe.

Together, these two inseparable qualities

assure God's abiding in every time,

place, and circumstance of human existence.

Profane, then, becomes nothing more

than our refusal to recognize

the presence of the holy tabernacler.

© 2013 Todd Jenkins

Obsession

Information is our culture's new drug of choice.

Convinced that more will get us higher

and overdosing is impossible,

we demand ever-larger syringes-full

and smoke it like it's going out of style.

Giddy with increasingly useless varieties,

we no longer care about quality or purpose.

Self-absorbed, we are sots filled only with

the numbing repetition of data

insulating us from reality. 

Our minds and spirits saturated with trash

equivalent to Sterno strained through a loaf of bread,

we're neither capable of connecting

with narratives nor people.

All we can do is spout irrelevance in random patterns,

the synapses of communion long-since atrophied.

So insidious is this hallucinogenic that we

completely fail to appreciate the logical disconnect

between our appetite for it and our paranoia

regarding broad distribution of our personal data.

Deliver us, O Lord, from this addiction

and its accompanying implosion.

Clear our caches that we might once again

store and retrieve sagas of community.

Gather our fragmented bytes that

they might be archived by love.

Show us again the miracle of stillness,

the healing of silence, the grace of space,

that we relearn the art of interfacing

our memoirs with yours and others',

through the unifying gift of our risen storyteller.

© 2013 Todd Jenkins

We Called Him "Dad"

We called him “Dad” ‘cause he’s the one

who helped to teach us what

we needed to know for survival;

who stepped beyond the love

his own father knew how to express,

upping the ante for our children;

who believed in us when

we weren't sure anyone else did,

even if he struggled to express it;

who helped us learn to laugh at things

we couldn't change in self or others,

and struggle with all the rest;

who pushed us to move

out of our comfort zones and into

the places where we could see

the faint reflection of what

God has dreamed for us to become;

whose heart broke when ours did,

even if he didn't know how to let it show

through that sandpaper exterior.

We called him “Dad” ‘cause he’s the one.

© 2013 Todd Jenkins

Commitment

I find the Spanish translation

of "commitment" to be

quite revealing regarding 

western practice and understanding.

One way to translate it is

obligación; another is dedicación.

But when the word is used in a sentence

related to something political –

for instance, a billboard describing

a candidate's commitment to the electorate –

the word compromiso is used,

which is directly connected to

the English word "compromise".

Does this mean that the Spanish language

recognizes that being committed

to something requires the willingness

and ability to compromise?

If so, this understanding speaks volumes

to our current political situation.

When you are committed,

to a relationship, a job, a state, or nation,

there are certain ways that you

must be willing to compromise.

No compromise, no commitment.

That explains a lot.

© 2013 Todd Jenkins

Living Faith

What would happen if we

figured out how to slow down

and pay attention to the details,

not just in scripture,

but in our own lives,

the lives of others, and

in the created world?

What would happen if we

figured out how to stand

in the valley of the shadow of death

with courage, not confident

in our own words or abilities,

but confident in the one who lived,

died, and was raised for us all?

What would happen if we

learned how to sit in silence

with the dead and dying,

without needing to say

the “right” thing or

somehow “fix” it?

What would happen if we

figured out how to simply

be present, far beyond the casseroles,

to those who are neck-deep,

or even over their heads,

in grief and sorrow?

What would happen if we

figured out how to both

let our faith live and live our faith?

I think the living could be

brought back from the dead.

I think that’s what we’re here for.

© 2013 Todd Jenkins

Supra

We have had enough

of Super Heroes –

magnified personifications

of strength and power

who use glorified violence

to overwhelm evil.

It is past time to recognize

and celebrate the Supra Hero –

one who can rise above

humanity's banal obsession

with destruction by unleashing

God's ultimate power that conquers

by giving, and wins by letting go: Love. 

© 2013 Todd Jenkins

Won!

If your world is constructed

on lottery tickets, scoreboards,

rankings, and competition,

literal or figurative, press the button

for the next available floor

and exit this path immediately.

Life, real and as God intended,

is about living into and through

the already-delivered jackpot of grace.

There is no finish line

toward which we sprint,

no mountain up which we hurry

against time or others.

Arrival is a moment by moment event,

only achievable in the here-and-now

with everything and

everyone else around you.

Welcome to the game

that is no game,

the race already-won,

the gift that can only be unwrapped

and enjoyed, as it expands

exponentially, when shared collectively.

© 2013 Todd Jenkins