Profit

Photo by Becky Johnson

He can be the most egotistical

and ambitious one at the table,

discarding the community-minded

and the connectional,

quickly dismissing the philanthropic

and the pastoral.

   If we make the mistake

   of electing him CEO,

   the board will soon be filled

   with the seedier members

   of his neighborhood:

   Ruthlessness, Greed, Deception.

   Once these four begin

   to block-vote, there is

   but one who can

   turn the rudder:

   his renegade cousin

   and homophone, Prophet.

Speaking truth to Profit's power,

this radical one weaves

an image of the future

in which creation's abundance

overcomes scarcity,

community trumps difference,

and hope assuages fear.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Storm

How she brews and

   where she blows

      is the answer we want,

   but no one knows.

Wind and rain,

   fire and ice,

      a path of destruction

   through us all does slice.

Dark brooding yin

   crashes yang’s violent light;

      all in their path

   succumbing to fright.

Our structures and bodies,

   are hurled through the air,

      shredded like paper.

   Does anyone care?

Captured together,

   a serendipitous chance,

      rainbow and funnel

   paired for a dance.

One rip-roaring,

   hell-bent on death;

      the other still promising

   love’s holy breath.

Let metaphor carry you

   past picture’s contrast

      to relationship’s reality

   so you may hold fast

to the ways your life

   can be healed or broken

      by the words you choose,

   either withheld or spoken.

Hope’s seed is scattered

   to places unknown.

      Come hell or high water,

   we’ll hang-on ‘til she’s grown.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Photo Credit/Source

3 Steps

All the worthwhile words that haltingly come out of my mouth and occasionally travel from my index fingers to keyboard (apologies to my high school typing teacher) are due to the confluence of three things:

Presence

Like the caveat of many contests, random drawings, and games, declaring, "You must be present to win.", life also requires our in-the-flesh arrival. Whatever winning is, perhaps life's rejoinder is, "You must show up to learn, participate, and grow."

Observance

Being there is not always seeing there. In order to truly recognize what's going on, we need more than bodily arrival. Spirit, emotion, and intellect also need to arrive and participate in the practice of presence.

Immersion

Finally, once we are corporeally, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually cognizant and engaged, we must make a connection between the self and experience of others and our own selves. This is where narrative weaves us together. We are listening to another's story, not to find a pause or opening to insert our own tale, but to find and settle into the places touching our own emotions, fears, hopes, and dreams.

It's that straightforward. It's that frightening. It's that rich. What are you waiting for?

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Epidemic

Phobia is supposed

to be an unnatural fear,

but when your heart

is racing because there's

a spider in your shoe,

   or your knees are knocking

   on a mountain overlook,

   or you're hyperventilating

   in the middle of a crowd,

there's not a whit of difference

between organic and GMO.

The tension can be exhausting,

leaving you a candidate

for a long nap in a safe place.

   What happens when

   our fear is more relational?

    

Spiders, heights, and crowds

may not affect us by their absence

and our avoidance,

though many a flattened spider

may strenuously object;

   but what toll do our

   interpersonal anxieties exact on us,

   both individually and collectively?

When the shape or skin tone

or religion or some other basic,

fundamental characteristic

of a person causes us

to recoil in panic, what harm

is done to our psyche, and

what cloud is cast over our culture?

   © 2015 Todd Jenkins

Surely Knot

Photo by Carie Turner

Beware the snare

of certitude.

The smaller your circle

of surety, the tighter

your weave of absolutism,

the more likely you are

to exclude some chapters

of the divine story.

If I've learned one thing

about the scope and purpose

of life itself, it's that

there's always more

than I imagined.

The great surprise

of God is surprise itself.

Paradise approaches

as I loosen the noose,

releasing the need

to control the field and direction

of the universe's expansion.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Sojourning

Photo by Joe Stephenson

Faith is, first of all,

   the willingness to undertake

      a journey, sans map,

         allowing the depths

      of theological questions

   to challenge our life's

assumptions and practices.

Her inferior doppelgänger

   approaches from a different angle,

      asking us to fashion gods

       from our fears and phobias,

      creating a personalized  deity

   who offers the faux

security of self-control.

Be very wary of the pretender’s

   seductive lure. Ask yourself,

      “If I can control it,

      how small and shallow

   must it be, and

how much can it be worth?”

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

E-grace-er

Photo from disdressed.blogspot.com 

Grace's wheel, soft but firm,

gives itself up, bit by bit,

to repair and reframe

our broken ways,

as we've misunderstood

our way through life.

Even after she gently

sweeps away the debris,

the imprint and shadow

of our deepest cracks remain,

yet we have the opportunity,

rewriting hope with the story

of our next chance;

not with whitewashed amnesia,

but holy reverence

for all the chapters

constructing our meandering

road to redemption.

Erase and sweep us toward

your sacred gift, O God,

with ample reminders

of our historic struggle

that we might narrate

the life-giving nectar

of your holy forgiveness

in all the world's places

where it is sorely lacking.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

More or Less

Photo by Ashley Goad

It’s the response of equivocation,

when we’re either not sure

of what’s being asked,

or of how to answer.

But it’s also the answer of eternity.

When your life’s question

presents itself, as it will

all of your days and then some,

you may begin to see

the answers holding water

are less about measurable quantity

and more about intrinsic quality;

 less about holding on,

more about letting go;

less about maintaining control,

more about freedom of surrender.

Each weekday ending in “y”

is a great day to decide

for more or less

of the options before you;

an excellent opportunity

to count with your heart,

realizing where more is less,

and where less is more.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Quick

Photo by Emma Montgomery

Pain knows no “them”;

at the quick,

we are all connected.

This is the deep place

where our essence resides

and from which it rises;

the place wherein

suffering and joy 

are held in the same heart,

at the same time.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Tipped

When a religion built

on answers encounters

a faith freed by questions,

    will there be a collision and struggle

    or an invitation for flesh and blood

    to open mind and heart

        so there's room

        at the table for everyone?

        Who knows which way

        the balance will be tipped?

             © 2015 Todd Jenkins

Good

Photo by Jerry Gorman

When you hear people begin

a sentence with, "I wish...",

what usually follows?

Is it a description

of something judged negatively

that happened in the past

("... you hadn't done that/

this hadn't happened.")

or something positive that hasn't

yet happened in the future

("... you could get that new job

you applied for.")?

Most people use "hope"

to describe a future desire,

and "wish" to describe

a desire to change the past.

The human mind has a difficult time

focusing on both past and future.

What will it take for us

to spend considerably less time

wishing about the past and

a whole lot more time and

energy hoping for the future?

Whatever it is, 

I hope we do it!

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Transitions

Photo by Jerry Gorman

During the past seven months I have engaged a season of discernment. After 25 years of pastoral ministry in two different congregations, I feel called to a differently-nuanced ministry practice. The phrase "transitional ministry" is now in vogue to describe what was once called "interim ministry". Leaders at all levels and in all denominations of Christian ministry have come to realize that "transitional ministry" is really what all congregations are facing. Changes in culture and technology are happening at an accelerated pace; and the question for mission and ministry is not, "Will we change?" but, "How will we change?"

A more basic question might be, "Will we get caught up in waves of change happening TO us, or will we, instead, seek to discern ways God is leading us to choose and lead change happening THROUGH us?"

Faithfulness to the gospel calling requires the ability to distinguish between the message and the method. The message remains the same, even as our understanding of it grows, via the intersection of our collective and congregational life's story with the Holy Spirit's inspiration. The method is the vehicle necessary to effectively deliver the message to our culture.

The gospel story is one of paradox. From the outside, especially when viewed through the lenses of intellect and logic, it seems quite contradictory. This is because it has a two-fold purpose.

On the one hand, it offers us all comfort in our afflictions. In all the circumstances where pain and suffering have broken us, the gospel offers its soothing balm of love and hope. I'm talking about the pain and suffering inherently built-into this unpredictable and often-unforgiving change-fest we call life, and the grief and hurt we inflict on ourselves, as well as the injuries we suffer at the hands of others. In ALL these afflictions, unconditional love and unbounded hope wrap us in a blanket of comfort, and a promise of healing and deliverance.

On the other hand, the gospel also afflicts us in our comfort. In all the places and ways where we have become complacent and have attempted to both domesticate the gospel and make it a proprietary text bowing to the reflection we see in the mirror, the gospel kicks back, goading us to a place of more humility and a table of larger community.

The twenty-first century call to faith in this particular culture – the USA in which we live –challenges us to mold the method so that it reaches the ears and hearts of hungry people with the message that transcends all times and methods. The therapeutic question for the paradox of our comfort and anxiety is, "Is our anxiety about the method or the message?" The former is a place where the Spirit offers comfort to soothe the affliction of our desire for convention. The latter is a truth challenging us to offer our own comfort to assuage others' affliction.

Carry on, confident that God is writing our next chapter with every bit as much love, hope, and grace as our past and present chapters contain.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Re-Member

We add the prefix,

pronouncing a single word

so easily, sure we understand

all the "re" there is to know.

Telling the story over and over,

whether it's out loud

to the same person

or different folks,

or silently pushing the rewind

and replay buttons in our hearts

and minds, we have a firm grasp

on the repetitive nature

of reliving events from the past,

whether they were in our own past

or somewhere before or beyond that.

But what about the "member"?

What dimension does it add

to the word's meaning?

It's the population of a place,

group, or organization;

the peopling of a particular narrative.

To bring a story back to life –

to remember – is to keep

its characters alive in your life;

to call the roll and hear members

from the past answer,

"Present and accounted for."

Their voices won't likely

vibrate your eardrums,

their physicality probably

won't cast a visible shadow;

but your heart will hear and see

them as loud and large as ever.

When you bring them back this way,

I hope you'll find ways

to endure the regrets and

pain their parting still causes.

I pray you'll listen for a story

of your future into which

they're re-membering you;

a story written in the font

of grace before you were born.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins

Flag

When I grow up, I want

   to be a flag, so people

      will pay more attention to me

         than to issues of real life.

      Don't you think that will make

   me feel special, if not powerful?

I'll touch people's deepest emotions,

   inciting more reaction and less action.  

      I'll wave and wave in every wind,

         without regard for either

      the direction of its flow

   or the damage it unleashes.

I'll be the distraction by which

   magicians and politicians alike

      perpetrate their illusions,

         as all attention centers

      on my colors, design, and

   position on the pole.

See me waving?

   See them bowing? 

      See others hating?

         I'm large and in charge,

      and nobody seems to realize it.

   Genuflect, and carry on.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins