Welcome

When the simple and

straightforward ones arrive,

with their sickle-shaped

sentence-ending punctuation,

asking – even sometimes begging –

for a declarative response,

if not an exclamatory one,

we often go into game-show mode,

swinging for the fences.

Check off a whole list and,

before you know it, you may have

completed a standardized test.

But when the deeps arrive,

plummeting beyond intellect,

to the resting of still waters,

an alternate modus operandi  is required.

Here, flailing toward resolution

is not only futile,

but also counterproductive.

Extend an invitation

for a leisurely tea ceremony,

letting ritual's familiarity make space

for a question to rest in your heart,

unanswered, sans anxiety.

This is a place – both a physical location

and a measure of time –

out of which imaginations are fueled.

Steep yourselves together,

that answers may fall away,

and hope plant her hook-like seed

deep in your heart.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Table

Violence begets violence,

and those who’ve perpetrated it

in the name of decency and order

seldom have grounds to call

for its end when it erupts,

as rage-response, in chaos.

Artwork by Sara Wills

The call for alternative acts

of peaceful demonstrations

must come from underneath:

a prophetic imagining that paints

a picture of hope with voice enough

to call us all back to the table,

where we must share the meal

of our common humanity.

Without this unifying thread

on which to weave our dreams,

the fire will consume us all.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Lord, Have Mercy!

For Nepal, her mothers and fathers,

her siblings and babies, the bodies

suffocated by debris,

all the families who wait and wail,

hoping against hope,

digging against the clock,

praying against rock;

Lord, have mercy!

For Baltimore, raging against the pain,

sinking into mutual inhumanity,

burning hope like chaff,

scrambling into confusion,

psalming into the chaos

for all they're worth,

disbelieving it will be enough;

Lord, have mercy!

For all whose tortured circumstances

merit no news coverage,

whose pain goes unnoticed

or unreported or even excused,

whose rudderless circumstances

create daily panic attacks

and breathless anxiety;

Lord, have mercy!

For us, when we get so caught up

in our own little dramas

that we fail to see the fear

in others' eyes, cannot hear

the pain in others' voices, and gloss

over our neighbor's trauma;

Lord, have mercy!

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

CWU 47 Opening Prayer

It is water that delivers us, O God,

from the day of our birth,

to this very day, and every day in between.

Whether we drove, rode, or flew

to get to Hopewell,

water is why we're here.

Whether we're well-hydrated

or thirsty, water – or its lack –

is the force that has brought us to this place.

Let Camp Hopewell be a sacred wilderness

for us, not because it is in any way

lacking what we need, but because

it is the kind of place where bushes burn

and sandals are removed and we find out

we're standing on holy ground. 

Let it be our wilderness because its proximity

to raw nature offers us the opportunity

to step away from what we know and expect –

especially the double-edged sword of technology –

and rely, instead, on your sufficiency, O Lord.

May our five days together be a time

when water relationships are developed,

so that we might be able to support

and sustain one another throughout

our lifetimes as your water saints.

Give us focus, endurance, and a great sense

of the joy of being a part of your glorious creation,

through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Hope's Leaning

Closing prayer for 

Columbia Theological Seminary's 

Alumni/ae Luncheon

O God, we know that 

nostalgia plants glory 

in the past, convincing us 

that dragging ourselves 

from the present, 

back toward yesterday, 

is the only hope our future 

could possibly hold. 

We also know that 

such rearward focus

precludes the possibility 

that you could, in any way,

bring a new gift to bear

that is capable of 

holding a candle 

to our sepia memories. 

But when history bubbles 

from the bottom up, 

where nostalgia is outed 

as a suffocating blanket 

of oppressive violence,

hope becomes a future 

toward which you 

are dreaming us. 

Dream on, O God. 

Dream until 

your dreams come true! 

Amen. 

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Breathtaking

Beauty, when it is

revealed and understood –

through nature or when

one soul reveals love to or

accepts love from another –

is so expansive that,

to the timid, it can seem

explosive – maybe even frightening.

But when we release ourselves –

our lives and our hearts –

to its fullness, there is no stopping

the grace that it reflects into,

onto, and through our lives.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Dreams

Don’t be confused about

the differences between

grace and enabling.

Aiding and abetting someone

toward a shrinking life

of being not only less

than she or he

was created for, but also

cement-shoed into a miserable

and fearful existential addiction,

has little gracious tint to it at all.

 

Grace is a healthful, hope-filled soul

standing beside you in the swamp,

singing songs of mercy,

painting pictures of forgiveness,

telling love stories, and taking your hand

as, together, you both walk

into the promises of today,

toward the dreams of tomorrow.

Her hand may not always be taken,

but she is not capable of ceasing

her holy serenade, even if its lyrics

utterly fail to be comprehended

this side of earth’s and sky’s edge.

Photo by Lee Lindsey McKinney

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Fire

To toy with words is

to risk uttering incantations

beyond understanding.

It is to expose writer

and reader alike

to mysteries beyond fathoms;

maybe even scorching bystanders

who’ve neglected

to stuff their ears

with unholy cotton.

Once the shapes and spaces

of narrative and poetic familiarity

are uncorked in new

and precarious ways,

all bets are off as to

the fires that will be set.

Many a story or verse

has inexplicably mainlined

from eye or ear directly to heart,

forever changing, not just

the original readers,

but the universe itself

from the inside out.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Blooming

I went to a graveside funeral four days after a winter storm coated the entire mid-state of Tennessee with snow and ice. All along the drive to the cemetery, there were still small piles of unmelted snow, both where parking lots had been scraped and cleared, as well as in the shadows of trees and houses. This kind of weather is an unusual occurrence for our part of the country.

As I stood behind the graveside tent with the gathered congregation, listening to the resurrection being proclaimed by family, clergy, and soloist, I happened to look down at the grave marker I was standing near. There, against the cold gray granite, a single, tiny flower had bloomed. I looked all around me and these tiny flowers were everywhere.

I thought to myself, “Four days ago, this ground was under an inch of ice and, now, this flower is blooming. Resurrection is like that, conjuring life, by God’s grace, out of death’s icy grip.”

Carry on, not in despair and helplessness, but in the hope and promise of resurrection.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Free Religion

Whining about creation's diversity,

as it is expressed in both culture and religion,

convinces us that any restraint

required is actually oppression

or even attack on our own religion.

In fact, forbearance is the necessary expression

of a society that values religious freedom.

What would it be like to live in circumstances

where our religion was a small minority,

and religious freedom wasn't supported?

Myopic tendencies convince us

that freedom and intolerance can coexist,

but  being called to exercise religious restraint

in order that others may experience religious freedom,

reminds us that many of our European forebears

left their homelands to settle here

for this, among other reasons.

When tempted to believe

that one religion – ours, of course –

is the only one that government

needs to tolerate, we need reminding

that culture and society will thrive

with a shared vision of hope and love

much better than it will by

the forced practice of a single religion.

 

Photo by Lee Lindsey McKinney

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Lifeberg

One of the surprise awakenings

of the spiritual journey

is the realization that,

as human beings, we have

some commonalities with icebergs.

Ego is the part of us that sits

above the water line.

Soul is the ginormous part

below the surface.

Though it is easier to identify

the portion in the air, and we spend

tremendous amounts of energy

trying to navigate by that part,

it is the massive submersion –

the soul – that is designed,

from jump-street,

to plot our course.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Now!

Book 2 is now available. 

A collection of 72 poems/prayers, each accompanied by scripture & full-color pictures for reflection. 

Also includes scriptural index and topical index.

Signed copies available:

$15 (local delivery)

$17 (mailed)

Contact me @

dabar96@gmail.com 

Also available from Amazon

Live

As much as Fear tries

to generate drama and excitement

when he arrives,

he is actually the most

boring party-crasher imaginable.

He has but one song:

a shrinking tune

with a repetitive chorus.

A six-armed beast,

with two hands

over your ears,

two over your eyes,

the final two

over your mouth,

his chorus is this:

♫If you’ll see no mercy,

hear no grace,

and speak no love,

it’ll feel like you’re completely

in control, and you’ll never

have to do anything

that makes you uncomfortable.♫

Here’s the thing:

if you let this song woo you

into its deceitful trance,

you won’t have to worry

about dying, ‘cause you’ll never

have a chance to live.

Photo by Holly Jenkins Williams

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

cHOSEN

Forgive us, O Lord,

for we have chosen sides,

instead of choosing each other;

we have chosen political parties

rather than choosing

to build a healthy nation;

we've chosen to keep score

and chosen to lose stories;

we've chosen to divide ourselves

instead of choosing to be united;

we've chosen to be right

rather than choosing

to be in right relationship;

we have chosen to control

instead of choosing to love;

we've chosen to live

artificial lies rather than

choosing to be inspired by

your organic truth.

we've chosen to live

as if we are the choosers

and not the ones

that you have chosen.

Forgive us, O God,

and do not unchoose us.

 

© 2015 Todd Jenkins