River

Shall we cry you a river

  with the tears of our angst

    over our continued refusal

      to put Mother Earth

      and her life-blood

    on equal footing

  with exploitative

economic enterprises?

The collective lament

  of those who recognize

    our systemic rape

    and plunder of creation

  cannot restore,and may not

ameliorate this abuse,

but cheek’s glistening trail

  can remind us all

    of the universe's plaintive call

  to tread gently, leaving

ego, fear, and greed behind,

thinking long-range,

  recognizing and living

    our interdependence.

  Will it be enough?

Will we listen?

© 2016 Todd Jenkins

For you

Photo by Becky Johnson

Here we gather,

nothing like a museum

for the righteous, but

rather, a healing place

for those in search of grace.

   Here we rise,

   joining our voices

   with a long line of dreamers,

   cairn-stacking narratives

   of resurrection against

   a sea of indifference,

   hoping against hope

   that love will win.

Here we go,

sent out into

valleys of despair,

reflecting the forgiveness

we have received,

wrapping the whole world

in the gentleness with which

we've been covered.

         Here we are,

         for you.

© 2016 Todd Jenkins

eNEMY

In our interpersonal lives

we are constantly creating conflict

as well as being drawn

into conflict created by others.

  Exacerbation occurs when blindness,

  ego, denial, and indifference

  cause each of us to blame the other,

  refusing both responsibility and

  engagement in remediation.

    When this sort of behavior

    is practiced on a societal

    or international level,

    we are directly participating

    in the creation and escalation

    of our own enemies,

    whether our differences are

    political, economic, or other.

  As long as weaponization

  and violence are both our initial

  and primary tools for interaction,

  there will be no peace

  and no amelioration.

We'll either have to detonate

all the weapons and

outlive all the warmongers, or

genuinely commit ourselves

to something more magnanimous

before there'll be hope

for a different outcome.

© 2016 Todd Jenkins

Within

The gift and miracle

of Emmaus is not disappearance,

but presence; not road presence

or table presence,

which were temporary,

but presence internal and eternal.

  The physical Christ of conversation –

  the material messiah of flesh-and-blood –

  is no longer with us, because he is in us.

    Eucharist is our regular reminder

    of this gift; our invitation

    to re-member – to reconfirm

    our membership –

    into the body of Christ.

      © 2016 Todd Jenkins

Bedrock

Old Stone Fort Archaeological Park
Manchester, TN

We need to uncreate the world

  that desires more for less,

    no matter the cost

      to planet and other people;

        the world that has profit

      as its bottom line, and

    views the rest of creation

  as a means to the ends

of accumulation and consumption.

My hunch and experience are

  that most of us can

    only see this necessity

      clearly in the context

        of our profound brokenness.

      Grace, love, and

    our deepest interconnection

  are most visible when all

of our faux identities crumble.

If the rest of the world is going

  to recognize and hunger for this,

    we, as a community of believers,

      must become sentinels of hope

    instead of wagging fingers of judgment,

  fountains of grace, rather

than fires of condemnation.

        We must confess our own

      shambled lives and live

    from a foundation of grace

  before God's mercy will ever

ring true for the world. 

© 2016 Todd Jenkins

Small

Photo by Linzi Anderson

Fear is afraid of everyone and

everything, including itself,

ever shrinking into a smaller box,

but pretending to loom large,

with ferocious bark

and inflated posturing.

   The small minded and hearted

   seek to divide the world

   into "us" and "them",

   never quite convinced

   that you or I or anyone else

   fully belong to "us";

      ever ready to banish us all

      to permanent Themville.

      But somewhere beneath

      the fearful veneer lies

a lonely, hungry soul,

never willing to admit it,

but desperately longing

to be invited into sacred "we"

and even holy "one".

© 2016 Todd Jenkins

Perspective

The chasm between human and divine

is largely dug by perspective.

Beyond the realization

of the limits of our own,

God approaches with our

recognition of someone else's.

   The holy is infused when

   our reality is secure enough

   to avoid the dizziness

   of multiple focal points.

Anchored in the self of God,

we can see, hear, smell, touch,

and even taste the universe's complexity

without needing to validate

one perspective over others.

© 2016 Todd Jenkins