Unholy Mess We Are

Dear Lord,

I’d like to chat with you,

If you have the time

For some things are on my mind,

And you are the right one to talk to.

My prayers to you come out as a lament

While friends of mine seem pretty thrilled

To see those actions and their hopes fulfilled

While me and mine just feel pretty spent.

We are an unholy mess

As I look around at this place

And I hang my head in disgrace

But I love this place I must confess.

Jewish people slaughtered when they met

Worship on their minds and hearts

They unknowingly would depart

Before that holy day would set.

Guy with a gun sought entrance into a church

Door was locked to the black church so he gunned down

Two black people while making very little sound

Except that gun burping away leaving us all in an unholy lurch.

And then that killer down in the south

Made all those bombs and sent them out

To people who’d been attacked by the one running about

Spewing hatred from his wide-open mouth.

Still people coming up from other places

Looking for asylum from pain and destruction

Hope in their hearts and their fear of abduction

Walking the long path with weary worn faces.

While still a thousand long miles from here

The man in the White House sends military down to the border

Just a week from the election, no small order

But we know what is behind his very thin veneer.

It’s all a big unholy political stunt

To arouse his base and inflame the fury

Of people of his ilk will not face any jury

While we worry and pray and bear the brunt.

Some of us keep on hoping and praying

That the man with the power will see his wrongs

Repent of his narcissism but we’ve waited too long

To see any hope of change, you know what I’m saying.

Compassion is lost across this fertile land

Incivility reigns and is seen all day and night

Just watch FOX NEWS, CNN, or MSNBC for the sight

Of people hurting people and kindness banned.

We have chosen up sides to the left and the right

And some in the middle cling to hope

That some ray of sensibilities will help us cope

When our long, long days turned into the night of nights.

We’re going to polls in large numbers as we pray

Then election day is here for all of us to anticipate

That change will come that we can all create

With our children in mind and work for a brighter day.

Lord,

I know that you hear

And that you are near

Though you are above the fray

And that is why we hope and pray.

Amen

The Truth Will Set Us Free If We Let It

Truth is truth

No matter how we spin

The lies and the deceit

Do not always win.

Character prevails

Let’s see it more and more

I hope we find more of it

That’s what most of us implore.

Women tell the truth

They live within their skin

To doubt their stories

Is too deep a sin.

People in power

White men in the crowd

No longer get by with crimes

And that makes me proud.

Character matters

Though some would disagree

Those who put politics above it

Will surely come to see.

Shall we continue the journey

And move toward things that matter

Before we totally ruin ourselves

Lest more lives we would shatter.

There is hope in the land

I feel it in my soul

Maybe we’ve turned the corner

The truth must somehow be told. 

Who Shall We Follow

To whom shall we give our loyalty
                         to whom shall we speak respectful words
                         and to whom shall we promise to honor and respect

Who Oh Lord other than you

             You Oh Lord command our attention
                         You call us to look to the heavens
                          You prompt us to look beyond ourselves

We are nothing but who we are
             we are not more than what we are supposed to be
             humans we are humans we will be
                          and when we die we will die as humans

 While humaning upon the earth

             we yearn for things for ideals
             for principles for righteousness
                          for fairness equity legitimacy to all of Your people

We in our humaning at times want
             another human like us to lead us
             we know that in closeness there can be trust
                          we assume that some like us and different from us can lead us

For some of us in our humaning
             we want the leader to speak like us think like us live like us
             lead how we would live in our darkest places
                           and other such ideas of unspeakable nonsense

For some of the rest of us in our humaning

             we want a leader who inspires provokes encourages
             all manner of good like kindness generosity service
                            and other such ideas of speakable decency

We yearn for one who will lead
             since we cannot to go into arenas
             to which we are not invited for him or her
                             to represent truth about us speak for us not to speak like us

In our better selves as we human upon this earth
             we may imagine ourselves humaning like him
             we are caught up in our shame dehumanizing other humans we
             laugh or cry or rain shame upon us
                            we have done or thought the same

At other times we cringe knowing

             he demeans others who are human like us
            would prompt rage and anger were
                             he or anyone else to treat us with similar words phrase tones sentences

 In our better selves as humans

             as we human upon this earth
            we image ourselves humaning like him and
                            we rise and say glory hallelujah thank you

 That which is the best of our internal selves

             seen upon the grandest of stages
             a reflection of our ideals as we yearn to be and
             in amazement we stand as his and hers and their
                             humaning rise above the noise the din the insanity of a world gone mad

 Which human do I follow most instinctively

            which human do I most aspire to look sound
             behave like which human prompts internal conflicts
             as he speaks arouses behaves conducts the affairs on behalf
                             of those of us who cannot be there but can be only here

I reflect upon the people of Israel

            wanted a king God gave with a warning careful what you ask
             the kings did their kinging badly or well
                            David inspired with his devotion dancing writing singing playing

 I reflect upon the people of Israel

             got more than they asked for Solomon inspired
             with his wisdom and knowledge and skills of building leading
                            Ahab and Ahaziah inspired fear hide shrink mind our own business

 Inspire us again O Lord

             allow us to watch and sing and dance
             before you with joy mercy righteousness
                             leave behind our days of fear anger worry dread embarrassment

Bring again our truer better righteous selves as a people country

             to inspire prompt better higher nobler things characteristics
             treatment of people like different same not so same
                             people and planet we call home for others to call home

The Prayer of a Troubled Bystander

This is a personal peek into my inner world. It may resonate or it may offend. Feel free to leave comments.

 

Dear God:

You have observed my quietness of late, no doubt. You have listened to my inner struggles and angst and torment.  You have heard my unarticulated cries of grief and pain.  You have known of my inability to place things in their proper order. Yes, you have known the roads I have trod.

I am not alone in this struggle. Many, many more are dismayed, troubled, tormented, and, yes, even terrorized, by these last few months.  Neither they nor I have much hope for anything better in the days ahead.  In fact, my suspicions are that things will worsen.

I am a divided man down to the deepest parts of me. While I know that in the olden days, a piece of humanity was seen through the eyes of Hebraic holism, and no one part was separated out from another part, though in the psalms we see much emotion, pain, grief, and rage alongside hope, trust, faith, reverence. In my own self, I am able to pinpoint various parts of me that think, feel, and see things differently and maybe even connectedly. I am angry, sad, worried, perplexed, troubled, and full of doubt.

On the one hand there is the adage that you are in control, that “God is in control.” That comes out from the left and the right. Lest I overly offend you, we have talked before about this.  You were in control but where were you during the decimation of First Nations people? Where were you during the middle passage? Where were you when the chains, whips, lashes, inhumanity, and ownership were perpetrated upon brown people? Where were you during the Holocaust? Where were you during the horrors of Jim Crow? Where are you now?

Have you indeed chosen this particular administration, or is it that you have chosen governments in general to rule the people? Where were you when Nero was raging upon believers, and using them as torches to light the night? I do not do one-liners well, and that is one of my faults, that even when the one-liners have truth in them, I am prone to detect how the one-liners are used by whom and upon whom. I do not ask for easy answers, nor do I want them from those who are other places than me. I do not want to be patronized by folks who feign knowing more than the rest of us. 

Things these days trouble many of us.  I suspect that there are folks who voted for the Republican candidate who are equally as troubled as those of us who voted for the Democratic candidate. I do not know. I only suspect. No one is telling me those troubles.

Knowing that we have elected a man who disparages the physically challenged, who insults women, Hispanics, and Blacks, and who calls for policies that insult LGBTQ persons, one who overtly and covertly admires all things white and male, is deeply troubling. That he is now appointing amongst his cabinet those with racist ties and ideologies that mirror the worst of humanity. That the world is listening and watching, that other nations are already developing their plans, that we have lost esteem in the global community, is difficult to swallow.

Against all of these things and more, to know that some 81% of Christian evangelicals voted for him is even more astonishing.  We voted overwhelmingly for a man whose values are diametrically opposed to those of the Christian faith. I do not know exactly where to put that.  That leaders of the Christian right and apparently leaders of at least one foreign country, one which has been the enemy of American for decades, even centuries, applaud his election.

That children of all colors, and parents of all colors, tremble for the safety of their children. That racial epithets abound, rude words on walls of schools, cards sent to children, teachers who speak inflammatory language, and other things that send a clear message, unless you are white, you are not safe. That these are not just isolated events is deeply troubling.

On the streets in our cities, night after night, people are protesting, and for the most part those protests are calm and intense. At other times they devolve into violence and destruction. I am not in those crowds, but my heart is with them. They as individuals and as communities are speaking their minds. I wonder who is listening.

So, Jehovah, I am troubled. I know only one place to turn.  You have always been steadfast. Looking backwards is more likely to make sense than the present, and certainly the future holds much anxiety and worry.

I just want to know that you are here and that you hear and that you will respond on behalf of our people.  I just want to know that what breaks our hearts also breaks your heart. If that is so, then I am ok. I think we will all be ok if we know that your heart is broken when your people are threatened and scared.

Amen