Enough

Our blessings are legion,

O Lord, but that doesn't mean

that demons aren't

swirling in our lives,

attempting to possess us.

We find ourselves surrounded

by Consumption and Greed,

by Comparison and Indifference,

by Judgment and Fear.

Cast out all of these

who would influence us

to want more and love less,

 to hoard more and give less.

Show us the lie

of Scarcity that we

may live the truth

of your Abundance.

Into the places where Hurt

and Anxiety creep,

pour in your Grace

that it may seep

all the way to the marrow

of our souls, and we

may find the truth of Enough.

 

Guatemala, November 2014

© 2014 Todd Jenkins

Shoes

I thought I was walking

in the ones you've been given,

until I realized that they were

only my most uncomfortable ones,

which probably look

and feel very different from

the ones you're wearing.

And it really wasn't a mile;

more like a brief nightmare

from which I could wake

and assure myself that such things

could never happen in real life.

At least not in mine.

Lord, have mercy!

© 2014 Todd Jenkins

Healing

Not broken or

declared defective,

or thrown on the trash pile;

not even repaired,

or replaced, or refurbished,

or recalled;

but healed is what

God has declared

we will become.

Healing with beautiful scars

and glorious stretch marks

to remind everyone,

ourselves included,

that the cuts and bruises,

cracks and crumblings

are not so much evidence

of our mistakes and failures,

as necessary entry points

and exit ports for Grace.

They are stained glass slivers

through which light

is able to shine and refract

into all the people and places

the sun has yet to reach.

© 2014 Todd Jenkins

Whole Life

It doesn't mean there are no broken pieces;

won’t guarantee that you’ll be put together

like you were, or like you dreamed,

or like somebody else told you that you should be.

It’s not a pristine book with gilded pages

un-smudged as the day it rolled off the press.

It’s not a policy that guarantees protection from harm,

or even reimbursement for the inevitability of death.

It has been fully lived, including the good, bad, and ugly;

dead ends, re-routings, pain, suffering, and grief.

Cracks abound, with no attempt to disguise them;

savored, instead, in humility and gratitude

because they have created you,

both in the breaking and in the re-forming.

To jettison or judge is to discard essential parts

of who you are, to plea-bargain for a knock-off.

The world needs all of you, past and present,

in order to move toward the abundant life

that Grace is preparing for our future.

© 2014 Todd Jenkins

Mirror

Friends are familiarity

breeding anything but contempt.

They alert us to the comfort

that therapy's mirror

need not reflect a solo portrait.

The very best of them

can be found beside us;

their body language

and facial expressions
often mimicking our own;

this camaraderie is often

the path from pity to party,

lament to laughter.

Photo by Lee Lindsey McKinney

© 2014 Todd Jenkins

Tangible

Grace becomes a tangible reality, 

and a true driver 

in the universe's market, 

when we begin to realize 

that the only thing our lives

should be compared against 

is God's freely offered 

and overflowing love. 

In this measuring cup, 

no one and no thing

are a threat to living joyfully; 

peace becomes a byproduct 

of breathing; and others 

become our sisters and brothers. 

Photo by DeEtta H. Jenkins

© 2014 Todd Jenkins  

Change

She sidles up as if

she were an old friend, 

but we know better; 

know that through her wiles 

old friends will die. 

Not necessarily people, 

mind you, but customs, 

places, and so much 

comfort from familiarity. 

If it were not for the loss, 

and the twisting grief 

that losing causes - 

grief that surprises us 

by its cunning deception - 

we might could stomach 

her forward summons. 

Where can we find an anchor 

that holds but will not drown; 

a tether that secures 

but will not entangle? 

Lord, have mercy! 

Photo by Lee Lindsey McKinney

© 2014 Todd Jenkins  

Outside the Walls

My sense is that the institutional church's current conflict and paralysis are largely a result of fear/grief from mainline Protestant religion's perceived decline in influence. As our global culture gives more credence to a plethora of competing claims, honest inquiry asks deeper questions, and we’re not all prepared for that kind of digging.

Instead of settling for dogma, belief, and adherence, people want to see and participate in a living of the gospel that is in-the-flesh.  This incarnational living creates an overwhelming desire to experience God at work outside congregational walls, where worship, by itself, isn't sufficient. 

In such a position (which is really the same old intersection of cross and humanity), the church's task is to thoroughly grieve these losses of influence (imagined or real), and begin to move forward toward the practice of a more genuine gospel that is less beholden to the encumbrances of, not only sanctuary, but also privilege and exclusivity; a gospel that is more focused on the unleashing of divine justice and mercy that are both individual and institutional.

 

Photo by Holly Jenkins Williams

© 2014 Todd Jenkins

E Pluribus Unum

"Out of many, one."
We're from the government
and we're here to help;

from the presbytery, the church,
the neighborhood, the community.
We're all in this together.

Help; when you want it;
when you need it;
when you'll accept it;
even when you won't.

One beggar telling another beggar
where to find bread.

If we don't find ways
to keep ourselves in this together,
we'll find ourselves out of it, apart.
E Pluribus Unum.

© 2014 Todd Jenkins

Grace Seeps

When the power of resurrection

seeps into your brokenness

at all the thin places

and thin times of your life,

it is so radical and transformational

that the transactional world

cannot deal with it.

You begin to let go of all the pretending:

perfection, comparison, competition,

scarcity, fear, blaming, hoarding, ego –

all of the things by which

you had been controlled.

You begin to play by different rules.

The old rules, hard and fast

as they are, become insignificant;

not because you are above them,

but because you have been

moved beyond them.

You can no longer see and act

in binary fashion, checking off lists

of things you will or won't do

because they are right or wrong.

You are both under the control

of and set free by something

much bigger than law.

You are living through Love,

which turns out to be a messy,

complicated rule that refuses

to be exclusively held by anyone

or nailed to any particular place or time.

This Love is a gift.

You didn't earn it.

You don't own it.

You can't choose who deserves it,

because nobody does,

including you.

Yet it's been given to you anyway;

not just parceled out to you stingily,

but poured out on you extravagantly;

given to you so that

you can let its gift and power

soak all the way

to the marrow of your bones,

flushing out all hurt and hatred,

and all other lies of "not enough"

all falsehoods of “not good enough”;

given to you so that

you can reflect it to others;

so that you can share it

with everyone you meet.

Unlike all that other stuff

that controlled you,

this Love shrinks and dies

when you try to hoard it,

and grows and blossoms

when you give it away.

This is your mission –

your life's purpose

from this day forward –

to let the rule of Love

free you to respond with grace,

not because anyone has earned it,

but because we are all

dying without it.

© 2014 Todd Jenkins