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Zimsum

I like poems that make me think, explicate my beliefs, challenge the rote answers, and wonder. This post from MinEmergent (I get their daily thought emails) is one that I want to come back to this week…..more than once.  The thought that “there is the opportunity for real hope to break in” is one I have been pondering. How does it happen? How am I a part? Where should my strength come from? Where do I find my balance in the duality that I am enough and yet can lean into God?

ZIMSUM
Terry L. Chapman 
God Is In Control
Really?
No matter how many times
I hear these words 
there is a voice,
that with convincing whisper,
insists this is faux hope.
Some, in order to live
as if this is the rock on
which the castle of their faith is built 
remain vigilantly poised on the parapet 
summoning the hope they learned in Sunday School
 that the siege of life’s demons
might be held back
by making the confession over and over- 
God is in control
God is in control
God is in control
as if by its very repetition it 
might become true
and at last the weapons of 
this spiritual warfare can be 
but back in the armory-

God is in control
God is in control
God is in control!
Hoping against all hope
that it is true-the unimaginable 
betrayal that it isn’t.
To say so is to turn your back on all
that is right, and true and american-
sinking into the abyss unbelief. 

God is not in control.
There, I said it.
Now in the letting go of these
shackles that, unimaginably,
restrict God’s freedom,
God’s wild, beautiful, terrible
intention to create a free world,
there is an opening created
for real hope to break in-
real hope
that all that is is in God
in whom we live and move and have being.
And not just us but the other too.
And not just the other but the whole cosmos
in God has being.

Real hope is
that God bears all-
that all is in the womb of God-
that out of this space-in-God
the new is being born
and in the fullness of time
God will be all in all 
and there will no longer
be any need to believe
God is in control.

 http://www.facebook.com/EmergentVillage

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Vulnerability

This winter I read a book by Brene Brown about the gifts of imperfection. Gave me lots to think about, how God views me and how twisted my view of myself can become when the world’s influence is strong. MinEmergent’s message for today was this poem, that I think it deserves remembering and coming back to (and finding where it is from so that I can read it.)
The Power of Vulnerability
by Brene Brown 
To be vulnerable is to see all of me 
And to be open to 
The possibility of 
Authenticity 
The courage to love me 
And ask for what I need 
With no certainty 
And holding my own 
Hand with accountability 
Of boundaries that 
I Set to let go of 
Who I think you need me to be 
And the ingredients include 
Courage, compassion, connection 
And the nest is acceptance 
Of all of me Shame and guilt 
Must be looked at 
With severe honesty in 
Owning my story 
Trusting my spirit solely 
Letting go of shoulds and pushing 
Practicing gratitude into a 
Shifting of joy that 
Doesn’t exclude fear or sadness 
But delivers the need for 
Certainty turned into faith 
And in the calm and still place 
Don’t forget to play 
God brought us each here 
With a gift to create today 
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May I suggest

I want the hope of this song to be mine today…..

 

May I suggest to you

May I suggest this is the best part of your life
May I suggest
This time is blessed for you
This time is blessed and shining almost blinding bright
Just turn your head
And you’ll begin to see
The thousand reasons that were just beyond your sight
The reasons why
Why I suggest to you
Why I suggest this is the best part of your life
There is a world
That’s been addressed to you
Addressed to you, intended only for your eyes
A secret world
Like a treasure chest to you
Of private scenes and brilliant dreams that mesmerise
A lover’s trusting smile
A tiny baby’s hands
The million stars that fill the turning sky at night
Oh I suggest
Oh I suggest to you
Oh I suggest this is the best part of your life
There is a hope
That’s been expressed in you
The hope of seven generations, maybe more
And this is the faith
That they invest in you
It’s that you’ll do one better than was done before
Inside you know
Inside you understand
Inside you know what’s yours to finally set right
And I suggest
And I suggest to you
And I suggest this is the best part of your life
This is a song
Comes from the west to you
Comes from the west, comes from the slowly setting sun
With a request
With a request of you
To see how very short the endless days will run
And when they’re gone
And when the dark descends
Oh we’d give anything for one more hour of light
And I suggest this is the best part of your life