The Journey with Jesus: Poems and Prayers

Selected by Dan Clendenin

Wendell Berry (born 1934)
The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

I seem to be spending a lot of time lately in the dark reflecting……… eating taco chips that I should leave in the pantry - and that one glass of wine that will prevent me from sleeping all night …. But,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Transitions are not just at the shore of water and earth - they are also at wine and bread - (chew on that one for awhile!!) and at that point in conversation between concrete reality and free imagination……………commonly known as thinking outside the box…..
What does God want us to do?
and more importantly - how does God want us to do it?
because we must?
because we can?
because we care able?
because no one else will?

NO - because we love ----- and because God in Christ Jesus loves us. period end of conversation.
Even as I write these words - I understand the enormity of them - LOVE - who me?? why me? let the next guy do it , I‘m busy…………….

My congregation is struggling with the question “who and what will we be when we ‘grow up’?? and in all fairness - I struggle with this question as well. I guess the 1^{st ( and most important )} question is - ‘what grow up, why do I want to do that!!’

But as Christians - that is what we are called to do - grow up not so much as adults as we think of it in this 21st century - but growing in the faith - maturing in the name of Jesus……………………………….......................

we may feel like we are all still in preschool - but the reality is that we are not. Middle school maybe - college- no. but we are still in school nevertheless.

And will be until that day when we see God face to face -

And all God’s children say ……………AMEN

Sometime last year I came across a book titled “This I Believe,” edited by Jay Allison & Dan Geidman. It is based on the 1950’s NPR series by Edward Murrow, and is a compilation of essays by both remarkable and normal everyday people about normal everyday things - the things that they believe in. And the invitation is open to everyone to participate. ( www.thisibelieve.org) And so I took pen to paper, actually keyboard to lap, and started to sort out what I believe in………….

This I believe:
We were made to be creative to make new, to fly with our imaginations and soar with God.

I believe in putting words on paper to bring a new idea to life. I believe in putting colors on a canvas to express what is in the heart - one’s most joyous joy and deepest sorrow, breath holding expectation, the safety of a mother’s love or the frightening depths of despair.

And there is an expectation - a waiting for something new in the young - caterpillars turn into butterflies, puppies turn into loyal companions.

But until that metamorphosis happens, it is an unknown. What comes out of that new thing is a surprise - God’s surprise - only God knows.

I believe in the hope of a new creation because I have known despair. I have gone to sleep with the veil of despair my only companion. And I have known of the sharp cutting edge of the light of hope tearing the veil to shreds . I believe the antidote for the poison of despair is creativity because in creativity there is something new, something to behold, something to hold on to, something to draw one up out of the depths, something………………..

Only God knows what the possibilities are and what the results will be, but we mere humans have been given the gift of hope - hope that this creation of God’s will not be denied.

Scripture tells us we who believe in Christ are a new creation - in Christ - the old has died and the new is reborn - there is trust and hope in that creative process - God’s creative process…

That hope is the certainty that all WILL be well with my soul.

God created - in six days he kick started the world - saw what He had done and called it good.

When I cannot be creative, when I cannot think of a new idea or make something new - or even want to - I’ll know that I am dead.