Flew to the tip of the garage
Standing there now
In front of us
Outside our window
Your message from the One who loves:
I am here
Standing guard
Leading you
In this work
In this way
Pay attention
Step by step
Look for me
You will find me
When you search
With all your heart
I am for you
I am renewing the earth
And it’s peoples
Don’t be afraid
I am with you
I see you
Even when you
Cannot see me
Look for me
Pay attention
(I came to faith in the 1970’s with the Jesus People, we were sure Jesus was coming back – soon!)
I moan
I groan
I lament
Waiting for you to come
Hoping for you to intervene
To silence evil
To stop oppression
To hear the cry of the poor and needy
When will you
Remove the evil rulers
When will you come in the clouds
Set things right
Set up your throne
I long for that day
I long to see your face
In the silence
I hear your invitation
Your call
To join your work
To speak for the voiceless
To speak and live truth
To feed the hungry
To listen to the oppressed
To push back
Evil, oppression, racism, greed, violence
In my prayers, in my words, in my actions
I realize
I am not the only one waiting
You are waiting for us
© 2020 Julie Clark
When I was a young person coming back to faith in Jesus in the mid 70’s I was taught I had the answers to the questions of life. My experience as I traversed different parts of the world and met different kinds of people that this was not all together true. Yes, my young life had changed as I made following and learning about Jesus a priority, but I had a lot to learn from the people I met. Yes, I could offer prayers and encouragement from my perspective and I did see people encouraged, and even recovered from sickness. Yet, I learned to be quick to listen, slow to speak. Well, I had to be, because I was learning a new language! One of the many gifts of learning a new language. I also was learning and seeing beautiful things in the culture and people around me that I had not learned in my own culture. I learned to look for what good things God was already doing in a person’s life and in their culture. I learned to affirm those good things. Of course every culture has it’s light side and dark side, including my own. Now as I look back on those early years I think it was arrogant and naive to believe I had all the answers. Is it possible that Christians are hoarding Jesus? Saying and teaching that the way I interpret his life and teaching is the only way seems a bit narrow and exclusive. As if I know all the mysteries of Christ who died for the sin of the world, the very same who is reconciling all things, all people, all creation to himself. I do believe those points. I just don’t pretend to know what they mean exactly or how it will happen.
Here in the form of a poem are some reflections from Mark 9:38 – 41 John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, we tried to prevent him because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me…”
Here, the path is wide
The door flung open
Us and them dismantled
Here, we celebrate
Our commonality – our humanity
See the goodness in each other
Here, the hoarding of Jesus
Is not allowed
Trust the outcome
To the one true judge
Of all motives, all character
Here we love and respect
We build up and affirm
The God given love
In one another
© Julie Clark 2020
A Blessing for those Waiting for Justice and Deliverance
(for those imprisoned in NW China)
In this waiting
Which feels so long, too long
When despair nags at our heels
Bless us with hope,
Bless us with prayers to pray
With names of precious people we know
And do not know
Names and faces of captives and prisoners
We can hold before you
And honor them and honor you, their creator
Bless the space, the time
Between now and their deliverance
May they know your presence,
Your love, your goodness
May they know you hear
The cry of the afflicted
Even if the cry comes
Silently from their hearts
Bless them with
Lifting the heavy burden
With healing their
Broken bodies
Their broken hearts
Lift their heads
Lift their hearts
To hope, to wait, to know
You are coming
and have not
forgotten them
Lectio Divina Poem on
Mark 7:24….
Jesus on the move
One place to another
Sent to the lost children
Of Israel, yet…
Why is he here
Where the Gentiles live?
Like a magnet pulls
He draws the hungry,
The thirsty, the sick
The poor, the desperate
The greater the need
The louder they call
His meal disrupted
A noisy, needy
Foreign woman
With a child
He heard her cry
And turned his attention
Questions and answers
“Even the dogs eat
The children’s scraps”
For this answer
She is rewarded
Her child is healed
Her faith commended
Do we see these
Women? mothers?
These men, fathers?
They will do anything
To save their child
Do we hear them?
Or do we turn away
From the disruption
And finish our hearty meals?
© 2019 Julie Clark
What is this division you bring?
What about peace on earth, goodwill towards all?
Is it about our choice?
To love and serve
Or horde and kill?
Do you come to us at our borders in T-shirts and flip flops
Or camped out in our city parks?
One more opportunity to choose
As you ask, “Who will you serve?
Me or mammon?”
Ok, I choose you.
Now I have enemies.
What did you say about enemies?
I have to love them too?
Now that is hard to do.
Oh, you did that.
I see. Is that how this works?
Love changes everything.
Love is the force that brings peace
Far and near and finally
Everywhere.
How long?
“Until all is changed and all submit
To love
Singing praises!”
Your ways are better
Your ways are higher
Than ours.
What is impossible for humans
Is possible for you.
Now we must
Get up on the highway
Of your ways
Watch and see
What you can do with love-
The strongest force there is
Moving mountains and
Raising valleys.
May we make the choice
To love
Rather than continue
This madness.
© 2019 Julie Clark
I have been hearing this phrase more and more lately. It’s a handy little phrase. I’ve used it myself many times when I am struggling to understood an issue or a situation. It is true that life is complicated, human beings are complicated, but I feel like this phrase can be used now as an excuse, a way of not getting involved. It is a way of distancing oneself from a messy perhaps dangerous situation. There are numerous situations going on around the world that are both messy and dangerous.
I wonder in a revised version of the Good Samaritan story if one of the religious leaders who crossed the street away from the poor guy beaten and left for dead may have mumbled to himself as he hurried away – “It’s complicated…maybe he deserved what he got or maybe he has a contagious disease, or worse if I stop and help maybe someone will get me next!”
Last night I attended a vigil, calling for an end of the inhumane detention of immigrants in our country. I was heartened to see the church where the vigil was hosted packed out. More and more people are outraged at the news that is coming out and wanting to get involved or at least learn about what is happening. It was helpful to hear from women who themselves endured the indignity of being locked up and treated as a criminal. (No it is not illegal to seek asylum.) Both women mentioned how terrible it was to witness the way children were treated. One saw the the agents tearing children away from their parents.
There are numerous things we can do to help. We can raise our voices for the voiceless. We can contact our representatives both federally and locally. We can volunteer, we can donate, we can educate ourselves and help others understand. We each can do something.
Let faith have wings that lift us to pray
Let hope have eyes that look for solutions
Let love have feet that move us to action
May we take a risk to love our neighbors who are in great need rather than turn our backs on them because “it’s complicated”.
I do not know what the answers are to good immigration reform. I need to learn. I do know inhumane treatment of immigrants is not one them. Another phrase I am hearing that I like much better is “This is not a political issue it is a moral issue.”
Photo by Life Of Pix on Pexels.com
(This poem is dedicated to those imprisoned in concentration camps and their families in Northwest China.)
What else can I do
But continue to speak up and out
For the ones locked in
And the ones locked out
They are separated from family
From community and their beloved land
From health and safety
Their hearts are tormented
And their bodies are broken
They are in anguish and pain
Can you hear them and lend your voice?
What else can I do
But pray and cry out
For the ones locked in
And the ones locked out
For the ones I know and do not know
To ask the One whom death could not hold
Who razor wire and prison gates
Cannot keep out
To walk among these people
Locked in and locked out
To call them by name
To comfort
To give courage
To give hope
To heal
To restore
To lift up
To set free
To rise like the sun
And bring a new day
© 2019 Julie Clark
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
It is Holy Week. We remember all that Jesus did for us when he went to the cross, died for our sins, was buried, and on the third day rose again. The very depths and heights of our faith. My husband and my calling to follow Jesus in loving those outside our own faith community compels us to go to our local Mosque this Friday night. Don’t get me wrong, I love Good Friday services. The somber reflections of the ultimate sacrifice Christ paid moves me deeply.
This friday is especially important that we go to the Mosque. For many years of our adult lives we have lived in Central Asia, first in Northwest China, then in Kazakhstan. We lived and worked among many different ethnic groups – Chinese, Russian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, but especially Uyghurs. Our Uyghur friends and neighbors taught us deeply about many things, hospitality, faithful loyalty to family, respect for elders, love of music, dancing and food, to name a few. These very ones who sowed richly into our lives are now struggling for their own lives in their homeland. The government of China is attempting to wipe out their culture and possibly existence by incarcerating over a million people in concentration camps where people are dying daily. They are seperating children from parents and mercilessly controlling every aspect of their lives through extreme measures. We are teaming up with our local Mosque this Good Friday to lend our voices to the voiceless. We are speaking up together to say No to this horrific act of violence.
What better way to fight the evil of dehumanization then to join with our Muslim brothers and sisters from around the world. We will not be manipulated into divided camps, but stand together and with one voice cry out to God to deliver the Uyghur people from their oppressors.
Signs and Wonders
Hidden away
For me to find
To discover
Secret treasures
Or surprises
Early spring buds and flowers
The haron circling me
Then landing on the beach below
The sea lion
Lifting head from the water
Barking greetings to all
The fog laying down
On the water
Surrounding the island
Like a blanket
Majestic Volcano
Radiant in white
All call me to pay attention
To notice the beauty
Of Creator
Signs of love
Wonders to ponder
© 2019 Julie Clark
