Your Face: A Few Thoughts in Response to Psalm 27

Your face is what I want to see

Your face will tell me what there is to know

Your face will inform and shape

Your face will rob me of my comfort.

So

I see your face

I look into your eyes

I feel your gaze

I long to stay here.

And

Your gaze is piercing

Your eyes are frightening

Your vision of me is revealing

Your hopes for me are disarming.

My eyesight is blurry

My vision is skewed

My perspectives are defective

My views are awry and misshapen.

When

You see me looking at you

You know if I want to remain here

You sense my doubts and fears

You hear my feeble cries.

As

I wilt beneath your gaze

I face my lingering doubts

I have deceived myself

I only think I want to see.

Yet

My delusions are comfortable

My placement of people and things are predictable

My blind spots are truth

My assumptions are reality.

Still

I want to see

I want to see more than objects

I want to see what you want me to see

I want to feel my blindness disappear.

My life is in your hands

My vision has been blinded

My world has been shaped by what I will not see

My surrender will lead me to see as you see.

I long to see your face

I long to be in your presence

I want more than anything to see your children

I desire more than I can say to overcome my own blindness.

You know what I do not know

I know that you know what I need

My life will not be the same

You remove my blindness.

I see

I see

I see

I am blind no more

To people of color

To women

To immigrants

To the poor

To the homeless

To LGBTQ

To the young

To those outside my social group

To those physically disabled

To those emotionally challenged 

Hopefully

Is my prayer

Anxiety, I Know Your Name and Your Game

Is that you anxiety

I think I know your name

The feelings you bring

I recognize your game.

You come attached

To the news of this world

To times and places

Ugly flags fly unfurled.

You leave us unsettled

We want things to be serene

You leave us in a mess

Or is peace too much of a dream.

Explosions left

Explosions right

Coming during the day

And in the dark of night.

Shootings on the left

Shootings on the right

Kids are out protesting

Offended by our slight.

The news cycle is full

Of all manner of things

That raise our angst

And make us dream.

We feel our humanness

Down clear to our core

Sometimes we wonder

Will we face what we abhor.

We have no trust

Of the man in that position

He stirs us up

We are his opposition.

He tells us lies

Day in and out

Our friends believe him

Sanity is in the middle of a drought.

We choose up sides

We blame and shame

But peace is what we long for

Our human game the same.

Looking for who to trust

Safe places an absolute must

Living anxiety free

In that place we long to be.

And from the storms that rage

I want to find a sweet reprieve

From the things that tear at my soul
Just breathe, I just want to breathe.

What gets us to that place

Is what I oftentimes wonder

It’s because of what we value

That is what I ponder.

Give us rest, O Lord,

From the stress of these insane days

Help us to breathe and march

And reside within your gaze.

Lord, Hear My Prayer

Lord:

Where does my strength come from

To walk another day

The earth is full of such nonsense

How do we even find time to pray.

Frailties of the body are the way we are made

Could that be part of the story

That it’s not about us we might learn

It’s about you and your glory.

When do you make your appearance

In what form of yours do we await

Or do we keep on looking

While in this barren land we make our paths straight.

The right seems to know it all

It garners many of the votes

The left reacts with frustration

We have nothing of which to gloat.

Righteousness does not rule this land

We have injustices all around

The world is full of corruption

In our stench I think we’ll drown.

The book I just read this morning

Has the prophet yelling at his people

Woe to those who idolize injustice

We’re headed toward more upheaval.

We glorify our guns and our rights

We offer thoughts and prayers for the deceased

We return to our busy lives

And continue to feed this beast of a beast.

In what do we put our hope

Do we place it still in you

Or do we move on to another

Or stay with what we know is true.

I trust you move in our world

You use people and moments

And we are reminded of the fallacy

Of putting our hope in our governments.

Our hope is in you Lord,

Our faith is in those you have called

To march and protest for what is right

Lest with wrong we are way too enthralled.

Inspiration is found all around us

In Dallas, DC, and Raleigh they speak

There is hope in the words of the movement

It is righteousness and justice we seek.

Bless our efforts, Oh Lord,

Remind us toward what we all move

To make the world a better place

And the matters of which you approve.

Amen