The Trees Only Grow So High

The trees only grow so high,

Then they die.

And it does not matter the wealth of their keeper,

And it would not matter anyway.

For all they would find is more of the sun,

Their roots the rocks,

Their leaves the ground.

They were just a seed planted here from the beginning.

The last stage in life should be the most rewarding,

But it ends up being the most lonely.

As the seedlings strive for the answers you have not been able to find.

A tree does not have the heart to tell them,

That we all live off the bones of the ones who came before.

No one has, or ever will, hear an answer from their knock on the great blue door.

There is no answer, so don’t go looking for that.

You can, however, explore why you knocked in the first place,

And find your place in the land of the waiting.

Striving unending in the presence of good company,

And watch as the fools go rushing by.

The beginning is the same as the ending,

The trees only grow so high.

A Riddle Created for a Longing Heart

The scent of a memory long forgotten.

A reality right in front of my eyes but just out of phase.

An echo from the depths of my soul.

Only the faint feeling of wonder remains.

For a moment everything is meaningful,

And I can almost remember who I truly am.

The memory of such pure joy now it feels a bit like sadness.

And oh it passes, and why does is pass, why must it pass.

Even if I can hold on for a moment, even for more than a moment.

Eventually it passes, and I cannot pick up where I left off,

Because it was complete for a second, but it was only for that second.

It’s always in the same place where I find it, but I cannot travel there by choice.

I can trace my eyes around it but never really see it.

A riddle created for a longing heart.

The one that sets off to find itself, and does,

Then realizes it has simply found the way back home.

My Thoughts on My Birthday

Mostly gratitude actually, my thoughts are mostly thankful, but once in awhile I see something I want and something inside me says, “that should be me” or “that should be mine” or “why can’t I.” 

Yet when ever these thoughts come I have found I have the strength to speak back, “That could be me, but why does it matter? I am content with what I have.” I have been given the grace to discern what truly matters, possess what is truly lasting, and to live in unity with my beloved family, and brother and sisters in Christ. 

My prayer for the coming year is that I will be able to serve others with greater unselfishness. That my capacity to give and receive love will grow. And that God will both help me see the meaning and purpose in what I do every day; as well expand my opportunities to experience his purpose by doing his will in big or small ways. 

In the end what you do is not as important and the sprit in which it was done. At the same time I know in the coming year there has been planned in advance good works to be done, times at which I feel truly at one with my God, feel completely in love, experience loss (with its corresponding amount of grace), and a least a few moments of laughter to make sure I don’t take myself to seriously.

And I am looking forward to living it with all of you…

Matthew 27:51-53

As we know the bible teaches us that when we die our spirits go up to heaven and await the resurrection of our bodies in their incorruptible form. The Bible also teaches us that God breathed life into mankind, and also when he welcomes to heaven he will read from the book of life, and will speak our true name. Growing up this is what I knew to be true, but I had not thought about it for some time. 

Recently while pondering this fact another thought occurred to me, and that thought was about DNA. What I know about DNA is this, it is the language that tells our cells who they are and what their purpose in the body is. It is also known that over the course of our lives we replace our cells over and over and therefore we are not, physically, who we were before. The only constant in our form is the language that is written on every cell. We also know, for some still unexplained reason that this process of rewriting ourselves eventually goes haywire and we grow old and die. 

The amazing thing could be this. That our true name, the one God writes in the book of life, is our actual form itself, in written form. The same stuff we see on this plain of existence as DNA. When the time comes God will speak our true name, and our form into existence. When the world is remade, when sin and death are gone, all God will have to do is speak that one singular unique name and our bodies will be created again in their true intended form.

Unfettered

When your mind is right and the world is wrong.

When the truth is such a lonely place to hide.

It is the opposite of fame, this narrow way.

When you press on simply because your mind says to press on,

Something new is happening.

You know you are on your own road, when you are alone on the road of your choosing, and it does not bother you.

When you turn away from the crowd.

When you walk alone, because that is what your purpose has determined.

It is then that you learn to appreciate a friend.

But would you know how to pick one out of a crowd?

Because if there is one thing a friend is not, it is one who looks the part.

God is a friend to me through the trees, through the leaves, through the breeze.

And just because he does not look that way to you, does not make it untrue.

You have not felt the way it feels on my skin, seen the way I see with my eyes,

And you have not felt the way it flows through my veins.

It has not bathed your awareness with light like the sun, unfettered.

But if it has, if it has happened the same to you.

Then let us compare our stories of how this road happened to find us.

And rejoice we do not have to walk the next mile alone.

The Last Laugh

I learned what makes us laugh the other day.

Apparently it’s a release of built up mental activity.

Built up while our mind tries to think a few steps ahead,

But then reality happens to be something completely unexpected.

Well I have not seen you in a while my friend, and don’t it just make you laugh?

Thinking about who we were back then.

And why worry if the outcome is so unexpected?

In all of God’s creation how can the all knowing be surprised?

Until mankind, in his free will, chose to stray from the path.

Didn’t that just make him laugh?

Does he smirk at my trials, does he smile at the pain.

I am a father as well, and have laughed at my son just the same.

And Jesus… Did your father laugh at you on that cross?

Is that why he had to turn away?

Or by some tragedy did it turnout was it no longer funny.

I bet you both got together on that third day,

Wasn’t it just hilarious?

But then, you let me in on it,

And gave the last laugh to me.

And it was glorious!