Repentance

A poem for Lent ..


REPENTANCE
The heart submits to it’s pain
As a bird to a thorny nest.
Oh Lord, must I walk again
Through the desert of the test?

Must I turn and face the dark
When my hunger is for light?
Yet I followed a self-lit spark
As I stumbled through the night.

And the fortress that I built
For the easing of my soul
Is now the den of guilt
I must leave it to be whole.

I must leave it, I must go
Through the torn up, shambled street
Though my steps are halt and slow
Chained to my vast defeat.

Chained, desolate, afraid
Borne by a shrinking will
To where I am unmade
And Your arms wait me still.

The Broken One

The issue of abused women is one that doesn't go away. (Like many issues, it is one that will never go away until Jesus returns and all things are made new) This poem is about an imaginary girl, but the problems she represents are anything but imaginary. A victim of some form of abuse since childhood, she runs away, ends up in prostitution (where of course she gets re-abused over and over)and ends up on drugs to numb the impossible pain of being a human being who has been reduced to living like a brute beast. This is not about the rights and wrongs of her situation; which of us, really honestly, has lived so blamelessly, so free of ever making wrong choices, that we have any right to stand in judgement? This is about a broken soul who needs to know that her only hope of healing lies in a God who was broken for her ..

Out of the limelight’s glare
Shadows where none will care.
Huddled in slimy street
Garbage beneath your feet
Garbage attacks your soul:
Who knows what more they stole?

Body an empty shell
Mind on the brink of hell
Absent from all that’s real
(For who can bear to feel?)
Only the sullen rain
Cries for such dreadful pain.

Blank are the eyes that see
Things that should never be
Plaything, discarded, lost,
Used only once, then tossed
Leaving the flesh behind
Cleaving the broken mind.

“Love” is the user’s word
Yet strangely still preferred
The bleak command of pain
Calling to feel again
Therefore oblivion’s haze
Swallows unwanted days.

Already lost in hell
Why then condemn as well?
Only love crucified
Goes where the heart has died
Lifting aside the stones.
Breathing on barren bones.

Some Favourite Lyrics

Over at the Rabbit Room, Andrew Peterson's group blog, they asked for people's favourite song lyrics. Last time I looked, they had 177 replies, some of them quoting stuff that was just so .. (fill in appropriate non-cliched adjective to express deep emotional response). So I thought that from time to time I'd post some of my own favourites here, here a line, there a stanza, standout lines from songs, hymns, anythoing with music, that impact me. Let me say in advance that most things written by Rich Mullins or Andrew Peterson already fall into that category!

So, a few to start with:

Heart of my own heart whatever befall
Still be my vision, oh Ruler of All
 Be Thou my Vision (traditional)

Rushing wind blow through this temple
Blowing out the dust within
Come and breathe your breath upon me
I’ve been born again
 Keith Green

Death is dead, love has won, Christ has conquered
 New Irish Hymns

Come to the Table that He’s prepared for you
The bread of forgiveness, the wine of release
Come to the table and sit down beside Him
The Saviour wants you to join in the feast
 Michael Card
(this one has particular significance for me. For years I had thought that when certain people in the church rejected and condemned me they were speaking on God’s behalf. I actually visualised myself standing outside in the rain and looking in through the window at those who were gathered inside, banqueting. Hen one day I heard this song ..)

Other authors -- In No Strange Land

Not sure how well known this poem is, certainly a couple of lines are! And of course to keep the meaning, I have to change the English references to an Australian locale (Ironically, I actually live closer to the Holy land than to England, but both are a VERY long way away.) But the principle is universal: God, Who is so evidenced and delineated in the historical story, is not confined by it. He is here, in our midst, in our lives, intimate beyond the formal constructs of our imaginations. And we, who are His, are truly His, even here, even now ..


In No Strange Land


The kingdom of God is within you

O world invisible, we view thee,
O world intangible, we touch thee,
O world unknowable, we know thee,
Inapprehensible, we clutch thee!

Does the fish soar to find the ocean,
The eagle plunge to find the air--
That we ask of the stars in motion
If they have rumor of thee there?

Not where the wheeling systems darken,
And our benumbed conceiving soars!--
The drift of pinions, would we hearken,
Beats at our own clay-shuttered doors.

The angels keep their ancient places--
Turn but a stone and start a wing!
'Tis ye, 'tis your estrangèd faces,
That miss the many-splendored thing.

But (when so sad thou canst not sadder)
Cry--and upon thy so sore loss
Shall shine the traffic of Jacob's ladder
Pitched betwixt Heaven and Charing Cross.

Yea, in the night, my Soul, my daughter,
Cry--clinging to Heaven by the hems;
And lo, Christ walking on the water,
Not of Genesareth, but Thames!

Francis Thompson

And some more ..

Reflections on the river at Mallacoota; Pelicans at the wharf (there was a guy cleaning his catch of fish and throwing them the scraps); a deserted Victorian beach; low tide

still more photos

lorikeets at the motel bird-feeder; driving through the forest towards Eden; an upturned boat (ok I thought the colour made it photogenic); a sparrow on the ground

The Jane Austen Book Club

Went to see this movie with my daughter yesterday afternoon, in search of some girly entertainment. It certainly wasn't a deep movie, yet it had some surprisingly moving moments, especially at the end, when only one character's fate struck a false note. The rest were wonderfully apprpriate, and one, Emily Blunt's character, was just SO right I surprised myself by getting teary. (My daughter would say I do that because I'm a pickle .. not sure I quite understand!)

The premise of the movie was that 5 women and one token man (who copes very well) are to meet once a month for 6 months to discuss, by turn, each of Austen's 6 books. (confession time, there are a couple I've never read. I quite like Austen and appreciate her skill as a writer but I don't get the almost cult-like status she has with some people. perhaps, by temperament, I'm just not that Austen-tatious (terrible pun, pretend you didn't see it)The interest is driven by the parallels between the plots of Jane's books and what is happening in the lives of the club members. And here I have a special word of praise, the film did not do this heavy-handedly, but trusted the audience to have enough intelligence to work out the nuances for themselves (and I'm sure I missed some, but that may be my lesser familiarity with the books .. or lack of intelligence .. open question!)

There were a couple of heavy issues raised which may be uncomfortable for some people, such as lesbianism and teacher/student relationships that cross the line, but, the stickier the issue, the more carefully and discreetly it was handled.

Not an I'll-remember-this-always movie (I'll give that award to the Kite Runner, which I saw a few weeks earlier) but pleasant, thoughtful entertainment, with one standout performance (Emily Blunt) which I would even describe by such unlikely words as "luminescent" and "haunting"