Genuine Article

If the gospel is for sale,

don't waste your money.

If the advertised product

is future passage to paradise,

but what you get now

is rules that, by following,

prove to yourself, and others

on this limited edition cruise,

that you've won, and others,

who didn't board your ship,

are merely Noah's discards,

don't bother packing your bags.

If what you come away with

is a rich blend of piety and pride,

with condemnation for anyone else

whose ship sailed from another port,

yours is not a journey

toward divine reunion, but

a self-induced competition

that misses creation's purpose.

If the gift you've received

isn't flooding every field

by which your life's river flows,

you don't really have grace at all,

but merely a cheap facsimile,

hastily concocted by Ego and Fear.

Love, set wild and free

into our ordinary lives,

is the universe's genuine article,

transforming all within her grasp

into exuberant chalices of hope

overflowing to quench

every parched soul.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins