Quality Seed

 I decided to play with simple poetry this week.

What is sown is perishable;
what is raised is imperishable.
It is sown in dishonor;
it is raised in glory.
It is sown in weakness;
it is raised a spiritual body. I Cor. 15:42

Soul winter.
seed laid to rest
below, alone
lifeless
cold, gritty dark
imprisoned? embraced.
promise
hope hidden
embryo sheltered
sun and rain
and resurrection
inevitable

unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone John 12:24

The Soul of a Poet

James Dickey said that a poet is “someone who notices and is enormously taken by things that somebody else would walk by.”

In her book, The Art of the Soul, Joy Sawyer expands this idea.

“A main component of a poet’s work is to highlight a common, ordinary detail so that we might see it through new eyes, hear it through new ears. Thus, the poet’s senses are at work at all times, absorbing shades of periwinkle, nuances of marble shine, fragrances of juniper and jasmine, tender glances across a living room.”

To me, a good friendship is poetry. Friends listen to each other and to God.  Each finds herself “enormously taken by things that somebody else would walk by” and helps her friend see circumstances through new eyes and hear them through new ears.

God created me with the soul of a poet.  I believe that this is a sliver of His image in me. Ephesians 2 says that we are God’s “workmanship”. The word can be translated “poetry”. It goes on to say that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand. We are God’s poetry, and we are sent into the world as apprentice poets!

I want to live my life like a poem God is writing. In turn, I want to be a part of the process as God creates beautiful poetry in the lives of the people around me.

On Silence

If I could prescribe just one remedy for all the ills of the modern world, I would prescribe silence. For even if the word of God were proclaimed in the modern world no one would hear it; there is too much noise. Therefore, create silence. - Kierkegaard

This is what I crave today. Silence. I crave exterior silence around me. I want the noise and demands and chaos to stop and let me go. More than that, I crave interior silence; for the static in my head to cease and be still so that I can hear the voice of the Word of God.

Jesus, you are the one who calmed the storm. You said "'Peace! Be still!'  And the wind ceased and there was a great calm."(Mark 4:39, ESV)  Speak calm into the rough seas of my heart so that I can be filled with you instead.

A Glimpse of the Sacred

The reverent among us possess excellent vision. They have trained themselves to see God's Spirit and his handiwork. They know the sacred when they see it, and the sacred is that in which God is found. With a finely tuned lens, there is much to see. Typically, we connect the sacred with holiness, righteousness, purity--and these are good associations--but we shouldn't miss other aspects of the sacred: God's love, light, meaning and goodness, the genius of human genomes, the beauty of an owl's whispering flight, the privilege of practicing mercy. Noticing God is noticing all of God that we can see, especially his holiness. (Greg Spencer, Westmont College Magazine, Fall 2010, p 14-15)

 I came across these words this morning. I needed them. Somehow, like misplacing my spiritual glasses, in the midst of life's bustle my vision gets blurry. God's spirit and his handiwork get fuzzy. Sometimes I overlook the sacred altogether, even if it is close by.

Mr. Spencer's words reminded me of the experience my husband and I had a few days ago shortly before dawn. We were in the bedroom of our suburban home when we heard the unmistakable hoot of an owl, very close. We tried to be silent as we moved our heavy wooden window shades to look for him. We finally spotted him, sitting at the peak of our neighbor's roof, a majestic outline against the pre-dawn sky. We whispered excitedly to each other, in awe. The huge bird sat motionless except for turning his head and making that unmistakable deep call. After a minute or two he disappeared silently into the black. We grinned at each other in the semi-darkness. Both of us delighted with the unexpected moment of awe, a glimpse of the sacred.