Forever's Now

Excessive focus on

the future aspect of eternity,

with blatant disregard for

the now of it, often leads

     to legalism and a bifurcation

     of Christianity that justify

     all manner of abuse and injustice.

This harmful convergence,

characterized by rampant individualism,

is a denial of communal

and corporate responsibility

for all of creation.

     When everything and everyone else

     are either stepping stones

     or threats to personal gratification,

there's no need to speculate

about the parameters of Hell

in a distant future, because

we're already creating

and living in it now.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Baring All

Photo by Lee Lindsey McKinney

Who would dare to use

    the precious resources

        of human life to record

            their thoughts and feelings

                for others to read?

                Somewhere between an open

            invitation to the slings and arrows

    of others' critiques and a presumption

of overinflated ego lies a heart

    that recognizes helpful writing

        as nothing more or less

            than a return to spiritual consciousness

                that lies within each human soul.

                    The only words worth sharing

                are those that open us all

            to the triangular conduit

        between our deepest selves,

    the core of others,

and the heart of God.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Here-wellness

If home must be a specific place –

a planetary space where sights,

smells, sounds, tastes,

and especially feels are comforting

in their shared historicity –

then we must choose between

being tethered or having both physical

and emotional knots in our gut,

distracting us from wherever

else we find ourselves.

What if we learned to yearn

for a more expansive place –

a movable feast of sensory

and spiritual delicacies traveling

to each time named "now",

each place called "here"?

Dreaming of this place/space

 at night, my bones ache

with its fire upon waking,

my heart bursts

with love's desire.

Will you covenant with me

to covet this mirage

whose density overwhelms

the lesser truth of our youth?

Will you pray for

our homesickness to be

healed by the gift

of here-wellness?

City Lake, Cookeville, TN

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Past Pulling

Memory and hope,

   as divine components

      of human life,

    give time additional dimensions

       that transcend a mere linear

          progression from past to future.

        This makes it possible

           for what's already happened

              to pull us toward

                 what's yet to come.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Gifted

Life is a gift. It was opened and given to you when you were born. Have you ever thought about what you spend most of your time doing with it? 

Some people spend most of their time in the Returns/Exchange line. What they have isn’t what they like (somebody else’s life/gift looks better from across the pasture fence?). They assume it isn’t what they need—it isn’t the “right” gift for them – so they spend their lives trying to return it or exchange it for another.

Some people spend most of their days in the Customer Service line, convinced that, because their life doesn’t operate as smoothly as the infomercial, it is defective and needs to be repaired or have significant parts replaced.

Some spend all their energy reading the instruction manual, afraid to take the gift out of the box until they have thoroughly familiarized themselves with EVERY part, function, and instruction. Untouched and unused, their gift remains on the sideline.

Some people spend their lives seeking to acquire accessories for their gift – aesthetic improvements, protective gear, performance upgrades, and the like. It’s as if they are unwilling or afraid to use it until it is perfect.

Think about the folks who spend most of their time and energy in line at the software/IT department hoping that a disc re-format or clean-up will erase the negative memories and events of their past and thereby give them a fresh start.

Others put most of their time and energy into practicing the use of the gift – finding out what it will do, how it can interact with and help others, putting it through the paces. Despite obvious signs of wear and tear, there is a certain glow about their gift that clearly indicates the joy with which it is well-used.

All of these folks practice varying degrees of maintenance (or un-maintenance) for their gift. Some run it wide-open in high gear, and seem to be driven by a clock whose countdown they cannot see. Others pull over on life’s shoulder at the slightest noise or vibration and call AAA. Some develop a regular rhythm of use and maintenance, getting great mileage from their gift and only slow down occasionally but regularly for much-needed restoration.

Where are you in all this?

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Shiva

               Our hearts hurt because they know

               that yours is awash in the ache

               of the love a mother has for her progeny;

            because the circle of life

            is not supposed to backtrack,

            allowing a child to die first.

         It is in this pain we feel

         reverberating from you, as source,

         that our common humanity bonds.

      Our prayers cast their net beneath yours,

      holding you up, as you offer

      to the heavens a full spectrum

      of grief, loss, and love;

   our hearts sitting shiva with yours,

   swinging low the chariots of our love,

   keeping the fires of hope stoked

   to guide you out of this dark valley.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Separation

It's the primary consequence of sin, you know: distancing that shape-shifts into so many divides and builds such high walls. Each one adds to the one before it, exponentially tugging our hearts away from the truth and liberation of grace, until we are, ourselves, utterly divided. By the time love begins its untangling, and  forgiveness starts to sink in, it can be nearly impossible to figure out where it started.

The beauty of it all is that divine mercy is not concerned with the beginning of separation, but with its end. Have your interpersonal walls been constructed with shame, ego, or a fibrous blend of both? Grace will deconstruct the walls, brick by brick.

Has the umbrella shielding you from the celestial nourishment of sun and rain been formed from unresolved guilt, a tarp of lesser gods incapable of love and unworthy of hope, or all of the above? Grace will pull back the cover, letting light shine and water flow.

Has the misery of your daily existence been woven from untold abuse, deification of your expectations, or unyielding threads of both? Grace will open the closet, blessing you and everything still contained therein, and invite you to a place at the table of hope.

Have you become an insatiable bundle of appetites, a heart-locked hermit, or a dizzying pinball, bouncing uncontrollably between these two extremes? Grace will show you your true worth, being, and calling.

No matter where you find yourself, the important thing is to not run or hide. Wherever you are when you recognize yourself, let divine love join you. Let grace gather the fragments of your brokenness, leaving nothing of who you are behind. 

Listen to the conclusion of Wendell Berry’s poem, “Wild Geese”:

Geese appear high over us,

pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,

as in love or sleep, holds

them to their way, clear,

in the ancient faith: what we need

is here. And we pray, not

for new earth or heaven, but to be

quiet in heart, and in eye

clear. What we need is here.

It's not just that what we need is with us in the present. The crucial understanding of the human condition is that being with ourselves and those in our midst – fully alert, alive, and present to and in the here and now – is what we need more than anything else. It is really all we need. Everything else is superfluous accessorizing.

The roll, then, is not being called “up yonder”. It is being called daily, hourly, momentarily, in our lives. How (or) will you find ways to answer?

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Write, Pray, Live

Actually, prayer is not just in the middle. It is also on both ends, and pretty much everywhere in between. But for the purpose of this piece, it is the middle-praying that gets my attention.

I’m a writing thinker. That’s something I’ve learned over the years. If I write things down, so that I can return to them as frequently as I need, they stand a much better chance of impacting my life.

Recording thoughts and ideas is just the beginning of my understanding of them; sometimes the pre-beginning. They're not pinnacles of my life's wisdom (an idea that made me feel fraudulent for years, until I realized its absurdity), but simply momentary glimpses of the road ahead, revealed in sacred lightning flashes along the journey of life's darkest and stormiest nights.

Then comes the middle-praying; the time I spend listening for what these written words mean for my living. There are usually a lot of questions. What will you do now? How will you live differently; love differently? What difference will these words make? What difference will you make?

Finally, comes the living; or the trying to live. There! I've said it again, and it feels like I get it a little more, each time the letters and spaces spell it out; not completely, but more than before. That's all I hope for: more today, in whatever form that comes; and the patience and attentiveness to recognize a little bit of what is boldly stenciled in the creation of each day’s unfolding; in the blooming of every day called today.

Carry on; not with egotistical condescending, but with the humility of shadowed revelations.

 

Photo by Lee Lindsey McKinney

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Stay Tuned

Photo by Owen Todd Jenkins

I first heard it as a child. My initial remembrance is that the announcer for the TV show "Batman" would say it right before a commercial break, as if I would somehow forget that this amazing episode of crime fighting by the dynamic duo would return after Madison Avenue tried to sell us something. At the end of the show, we were also reminded to tune in next week, "Same bat time; same bat channel."

I've found myself using it a lot lately, in emails and text messages, to remind myself and others that we're all still waiting on something: an answer, or maybe even a better question. But now I realize that it's also a call to be steadily attentive to the divine whisper. I see how easy it is to change my heart's channel and miss hearing and seeing the bread crumbs that God regularly piles on my path.

Stay tuned! You don't want to miss any of life’s episodes.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Power Lifting

I found this one in an old prayer journal while cleaning out my study (originally journaled 4-1-2003). 

 

Photo by Lee Lindsey McKinney

Weight of the world

precariously balanced

on shoulders too narrow,

too weak to bear such mass.

Sweating, straining, shaking,

determined not to fail;

loud and clear the message:

Will and way must meet.

Yet, another voice pleads

a very different case:

The solar system did just fine

for eons without your help.

Let the earth spin its wobbly path

just the way I planned

so you can sing

and dance upon it

in my gift of joy to you.

Let go of God's work;

spend your energy becoming

the universe's gift of creation

by living love and hope.

So much lighter the step

when the world is released;

double-spinning 'round the sun

to embrace life's light and dark.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Listening

When we listen

   only for and in

      our own language,

         Pentecost is nothing more

            than the drunken stupor

               of country boys

                  come to town;

its ethnic flavor

   leaves a bad taste

      in our mouth,

         yearning us toward

            English-Only referendums,

               tighter border controls.

But for those who're learning

   to hear in the dialect

      of neighbor – maybe even

         the brogue of love –

transcendent tongues

   of fire are an invitation

      to listen through

         the amplifier of hospitality,

            seeing the web of grace.

Are you ready

   for prophesying progeny,

      for dreaming elders,

         for visioning youngers,

            for trafficked and guest workers

                to awaken the gospel?

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Red

It's a color claimed by many

throughout the centuries.

Pentecost is the day when we

celebrate fire's arrival.

Happy birthday, sister Church!

How many candles should we light?

Enough to cause them to dial 9-1-1?

What languages do you know?

Which ones are you open to feeling

vibrate across your vocal chords?

Are your ears burning?

“Let's wake the neighbors;

let's get the word out!

Come on, crank up the music,

climb a mountain and shout!”

Or maybe we should just

light a couple of candles as usual,

say a few safe/tame prayers,

take up the basket of leftovers

and call it a day.

Photo by Lee Lindsey McKinney

 © 2015 Todd Jenkins

Feathers

Wisps of evidence

that creatures of the air

have graced us

with their presence;

    gossamer-winged beings

    of rainbow beauty

    leaving hints of joy

    to call us toward

    the rarefied air of love;

        Pentecost doves,

        afire with hope,

        but also so many others

        who lift us up with their

        extraordinary ordinariness,

            breathing life into us

            just by having flown past

            in our darkest night,

            floating grace to our feet.

            © 2015 Todd Jenkins

In the Wind

Like ashes in the wind we blow,

a wisp of sight, a whiff so light;

unless you’re there you'll never know.

That is how a whole life passes,

from forceful breath to fragile death,

a bate of never ending classes;

where love is learned, grace is caught,

faith unwrapped, forgiveness strapped,

holding peace forever sought.

If our hearts aren't open wide,

ignoring "How?" exclaiming "Wow!"

we'll never catch the rising tide;

miss the sound of crashing waves,

cleansing pain, richest gain,

miss the crest of hope that saves.

When the breeze your soul scatters,

surf crashes, fear thrashes,

know you're alive and love’s what matters.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Contributing Factor

Our daily encounters

with others have

an influence on their

past, present, and future.

We do not make them

do what they do or

stop them from doing it.

We cannot make them

who they are or

whom they'll become,

but we have a contribution.

Whether we judge or listen,

 we're contributing.

Whether we affirm or accuse,

we're contributors.

Whether we see and listen

or look and ignore,

we have contributed.

Whether we plant

or tear asunder,

it's our contribution.

What will yours be today?

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Deeper

How can we more fully

move beyond a respect

for the flag and

knee-jerk patriotism

to a discussion of the actions

of a government driven,

not by a thirst for liberty

and justice for all,

but by fear, greed,

and a xenophobic desire

for the homeostasis of a few?

If our culture is going to change

for the better, we're going

to have to create a safe environment

for deeper conversations.

We're going to have to face,

admit, and address our own

comfort and complicity

in the power structures that exist.

We're going to have

to live glocally –

thinking globally

and acting locally.

 

Photo by DeEtta Harris Jenkins

© 2015 Todd Jenkins