THE FIFTH WORD

The Word of Distress
I thirst (John 19:28)

(Photo by Kristin Berkey-Abbott)

THE FIFTH WORD

The Word of Distress
I thirst (John 19:28)

(Photo by Pastor Keith)

Faith seems 

so easy for some, 

you know the ones, 

joyous, at peace, aglow.

One wonders 

if they have as much peace in their soul 

as on their brows, smooth, relaxed,

or in their easy laugh.

Would they tell me their secret?

Share that chapter of their lives when it all came together

for them.

I thirst, 

find a sip here and there, 

the desert air drying my bones that long to live

and live and live,

uneasy, often fearful that the waters

may evaporate, muddied shallow pools,

cracking earth, gone. 

I thirst,

and Christ breaks through

and my heart and my soul

beat with all the jazz of heaven 

and in the ecstasy of the moment

thunderstorms rain down,

I run around mouth agape,

foolish, mad, a gleeful child all at once. 

And the pools fill, the ponds, the lakes.

Will it rain tomorrow, if it rained today?

One question to another: 

To journey on or sit the quiet waters by?

To risk and trust,

to live without concern for clouds. 

THE FIFTH WORD

The Word of Distress

I thirst (John 19:28)

(Photo by Pastor Keith)

THE FOURTH WORD
"My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?"
(Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34).

Faith should bear its doubts,

more with pride then shame,

The tension of belief and unbelief

marking one thirsting to know God more deeply,

honestly, God's shoulders broad enough to bear all. 

How quick we are to dismiss with a word,

the rawness of pain,

the wound, 

the bitterness of tears, 

the tightness of the throat, 

a broken soul.

Forsakenness stares down our discomfort with doubt.

Defies our discomfort and soothing words

that insult both God and us. 

For only when we have nothing, can we have everything.

THE FOURTH WORD
 "My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?"
 (Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34).
The Word of Abandonment
(photo by Pastor Keith)

Where will tomorrow go?
All fear and mist,
all darkness, the primal scream
without release.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
I walk the highways, broken glass and stone,
Everything is rust.
All the windows rolled up,
cars tinted dark see me invisible.
I see the cross everywhere, empty,
The thinnest hope,
echoes of promise
breaking the stillness of the night.  

 

THE FOURTH WORD
My God, My God, why have you forsaken me
(Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34).
The Word of Abandonment
(photo by Pastor Keith)

There are no footprints in the sand, are there?
Not in the life I know.
The shore of life is rocky, hard, often unforgiving;
our feet complaining every step, 
We see nothing, the distance stretching out,
to a horizon beyond the beyond. 
We walk in loneliness, often.
We pray, we cry out to God in faith,
taking no comfort in a pithy phrase or cheery quip. 
It is no sin to thirst deeply for God, 
when in our parched souls
the doubt and fear of the 
forsakeness of God may deem to dwell;
God can take our doubt, expects it,
the tension in which we humans live,
live and death, faith and doubt, trust and fear,
the nearness of God through it all,
strong in compassion,  unwavering in love. 

THE FOURTH WORD
My God, My God, why have you forsaken me
(Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34).
The Word of Abandonment
(photo by Kristin Berkey-Abbott)