Journey’s destination
Seeking life’s unknown
Coming to night’s station
No one answers phone
Voices remain muted
Chasing shadow’s trace
Feeling spirit looted
Darkness giving chase
Freedom’s ember cloaked
Walking toward peace
Igniting flame, well-stoked
Distant voice won’t cease
Tomorrow offers hope
Hearing wartime’s calm
Grasping sunrise’s rope
Listen, no more bombs!
From Psalm 118:1: “O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His steadfast love endures forever!”
Christ shall endure forever
Witnessing His steadfast love
Forgiveness heals brokenness
Righteousness flows from above
Christ journeys to Calvary
Bringing man’s darkness with Him
Sin’s valley of death’s shadow
Light waiting at heaven’s rim
Christ becomes faith’s cornerstone
Yielding to Father’s design
Truth waiting at Roman cross
Sacred blood pays every fine
Christ foils enemy’s insults
Shedding eternity’s wrath
Love borne, no matter its cost
Promised grace reveals faith’s path
Christ builds heaven’s trusted bridge
Rising from now empty tomb
Passion’s flames light mercy’s quest
Brought forth into Father’s room
From Psalm 118:19: “Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.”
Every path that leads to heaven is trodden by willing feet. No one is ever driven to paradise.
From Psalm 119:105: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
Howard Crosby (1826-1891) was an American pastor and academic professor.
Early morning walk, going back in time
Autumn’s breath creates thoughts, filling with rhyme
Trekking along canal’s ancient pathway
Thoughts caress past moments, plenty to say
Gentle breeze, sending leaves twirling on down
Mind arrives at different time and town
Dreaming . . .
More simple times, without high tech living
Days invite, delightful and forgiving
Riding bareback along this old canal
Looking for trees to climb with school-age pals
Fishing one final time, nearby pond waits
When icy winter comes, change to ice skates
Creepy, storm-filled nights, reading classic prose
Edgar Allen Poe’s words, scary shadows
Looking for literature’s lighter themes
Whitman, Hawthorne, Melville adding to dreams
Quiet evenings filled with family time
Gathered around for radio’s primetime
Crisp, fall afternoon, gridiron titans clash
College football rivals looking to smash
Romance blossoms, courtship takes center stage
Life filling with sweetness, each turning page
Back to reality . . .
Journey runs into closed gate at Rager Road
Turning around, grateful for time borrowed
Looking forward to walking here real soon
Fondest memories, let them sing a tune
Originally published October, 2020.
If Jesus returns tomorrow, then tomorrow I’ll rest from my labor. But today I have work to do. I must continue the struggle until it’s finished.
From Galatians 6:9: “So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.”
German-born Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) was a Lutheran pastor, theologian, and anti-Nazi dissident. Many of his writings express the role of Christianity in mankind’s daily lives. He paid the ultimate price for his activism against the Nazi regime during World War II.
In tomorrow’s shadows
Worry waits to jump out
Disappointment crashes in
Filling waves with doubt
Aspirations seem dashed
Sunrise seemingly locked
Yesterday not forgotten
Seeing future blocked
Breath of sorrow surrounds
Hope seen flowing away
Another storm standing tall
Searching through its gray
Dreams no longer brightened
Today’s voyage postponed
Been at this moment before
Feeling self disowned
Freedom shares patient heart
Journey no longer drowned
Faithful love comes alongside
Sailing homeward-bound
Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence.
It ain’t the roads we take; it’s what’s inside of us that makes us turn out the way we do.
O. Henry, the pen name of William Henry Porter (1862-1910), was an American writer who mastered the art of crafting short stories.
From Joel 2:12-13: “Yet even now, says the Lord, return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from punishment.”
Even in our darkness
Hearing call from God above
Troubled waters’ rising tide
Vanquished by boundless love
Caught in sin’s wilderness
Mourning with daily fasting
Come now, embrace repentance
Trusted peace, long-lasting
Born in sin’s emptiness
Pursuing redemption’s door
God, create one more clean heart
Wandered away, no more
Broken righteous spirit
Escaping evil’s fire pit
Better days waiting ahead
Restored faith now submits
Hope’s journey pursues light
Thirsting for faith’s risen place
Glory waits at Calvary
Witnessed in Savior’s grace
From Psalm 51:10-11: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your holy spirit from me.”
We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.
When we’re connected to others, we become better people. [Both quotes come from Pausch’s “The Last Lecture” given on September 18, 2007.]
Randy Pausch (1960-2008) was an American educator and professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. His life was cut short by pancreatic cancer, but he persevered to share his final lecture a few months before his death.
Faith’s
Goodness breathes
Mercy shall lead
Surely found in God
Hope
Delivering
From darkness
Victory over enemy
God’s still waters flow
Restoration
Trusted
Divine love
Lighting righteous path
Walking toward God’s eternity
Peace
Big Sky Buckeye 