When you need a new rhythm
Old one not working
Wearing you out
Step off, step out and away
Find a quiet place
A lonely place
To think
To listen
Make the changes
To save yourself
© 2020 Julie Clark
Paths
Questions I Have
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
The Wind
Photo by Tookapic on Pexels.com
Waiting for the Wind
To move
To fill my sail or soul
To move me along the course
The path
The way
I should go
Sometimes
The stillness
Makes me nervous
No action
No hustle
No bustle
No moving here and there
Just an invitation
To be still
To wait
To listen
© 2018 Julie Clark
What does love look like?
Photo by Tobi on Pexels.com
After the Royal Wedding this last weekend, I want to reblog these poems. I was very inspired by Bishop Michael Curry who encouraged us to think and imagine a world where love is the way. There is power in love to transform us and our world. Thinking and imagining what that world would look like will help to point us in that direction! It will help get our feet moving to do the good that we can do one step at a time. Let’s get moving!
When the seams of life unravel
When fog blurs vision
The way forward is obscured
When positions are hardened
Anger flares
Resolution and reconciliation
Seem millions of miles away
Remember
The greatest of all is love
It is the pulse that runs the universe
Slow down and listen
Feel it running through
Your veins
Ask the question –
What does love look like?
Give imagination free rein
Wait for your thoughts to form
Then get ready
Bring a friend, sister or brother
Go do that good
You are inspired to do.
© 2017 Julie Clark
Be Your Best
Be your best
Come alive
Breathe in life
Inspire me
With your love
With your courage
Be your best
Find a way
Show the way
I will follow
Be my best
Together we
Sow the seeds
Of love and courage
© 2017 Julie Clark
Categories: Hope, Love, Paths, Poetry, Uncategorized
Tags: change, lisren, love, power
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Ancient Words, Ancient Prayer
“May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.” Psalm 33:22
Ancient words, comforting words
Still bringing life
Over the long passages of time
Joining in the cry of the faithful
Or the desperate
Or both
Please be mindful of me
On this treacherous pilgrimage
On planet earth
My mind
Incapable of knowing
All the sinkholes
And swirling vortexes
Threatening to take me
Down and away
I will leave those to you
And keep my eyes focussed
On this path
One step at a time
You are my good shepherd
After all
© 2018 Julie Clark
A Series of Laments
I am writing a series of laments. As a white evangelical Christian I did not learn to lament in my religious or cultural background. This lack of lament is probably due to the fact that I and my ancestors, as part of the dominant culture, have not suffered the injustice, oppression or violence as have many of my neighbors of color. In the last few years I have been introduced to this specific form of prayer. It is connected closely with confession and repentance. We are living in an extremely violent society, in an extremely violent world. We are reeling from one tragic event to another. As a follower of Jesus the Christ, I have learned from his teachings the law of sowing and reaping. What is planted is what grows. With this principle in mind I wonder what it will take to root out the violence in our society and in our world. Large trees with long roots started as small seeds. What seeds have been planted in our history that continue to bloom into violence? I believe a collective lament, confession and repentance is necessary for lasting change to occur. The path to healing in our communities, must go through this path of self-reflection and acknowledgement leading to lament, confession and repentance. I invite you to join me in this journey of overturning the soil in our hearts in the hope of producing the good fruits of love and peace in our world.
Laments can be spoken, chanted or sung together in a group or alone. The bold letter words are for those who wish to pray together in a group.
This first lament is in response to the recent Texas church shooting.
#1 Lament for violence in our land:
Oh God hear our prayers!
Today children are grieving.
They have lost their parents or grandparents.
Oh Lord hear their cries.
Today parents and grandparents are grieving.
They have lost their children and grandchildren.
Oh Lord hear their cries.
Today brothers and sisters are grieving.
They have lost their siblings.
Oh Lord hear their cries.
Today neighbors and friends are grieving.
They have lost their neighbors and friends.
Oh Lord hear their cries.
We have done wrong against you
And our fellow human beings
Made in your image.
We have not loved our neighbors
As ourselves.
We have loved our power
More than our neighbors.
Lord have mercy.
We have loved our comfort
More than our neighbors.
Lord have mercy.
We have loved our privilege
More than our neighbors.
Lord have mercy.
We have loved our safety
More than our neighbors.
Lord have mercy.
We have loved our weapons
More than our neighbors.
Lord have mercy.
Lord have mercy
And forgive us these things
We pray.
Show us how to walk out
Our repentance towards you
And our neighbors.
Amen
Categories: Faith, God, grief and death, growth, Hope, lament, Paths, Peace and Reconciliation, Prayer
Tags: change, healing, lament, neighbors, prayer, Texas Church Shooting, violence
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Like the Good Shepherd
Come looking for me
Like the Good Shepherd
I am lost
I am lonely
I am scared
We all lose the path
Sometimes
We cannot find the way out
Of a maze
A pit
Out of the water
Rushing over us
We need
A rope
A strong boat
A hand
To pull us out
And up
Sometimes
We can be
That rope
Or hand
When someone else
Is sinking
© 2017 Julie Clark
Psalm reflections
“Your statutes have been like songs to me
Whenever I have lived as a stranger.” Psalm 119:14
I have been a stranger
in the land
A foreigner in this place
I am obtuse
To the language
and culture
Yet one constant –
The song of your presence
I am no stranger
to you
No foreigner
in this land
Where heaven meets earth
the song is born
Where you call me your own
you lead me by the hand
“Show me the road that I must walk
For I lift my soul to you.” Psalm 143:8
The road divides before me
Shall I turn left or right?
I lift up my eyes,
My soul,
My prayer,
I put my trust in your
Unfailing love
I make my choice
And follow you.
© 2017 Julie Clark
Equilibrium
Every now and again
Life circumstances line up
A great wall of water
A perfect storm
That knocks you down
And carries you away
You and the balls
You have been juggling
Faith, hope, and love
Now amidst all the wreckage
You find a way to stand up
And breathe
You start your search
Looking for those balls
To throw into play again
Without them you
Really can’t live
For very long
© 2017 Julie Clark
Ask the question
When the seams of life unravel
When fog blurs vision
The way forward is obscured
When positions are hardened
Anger flares
Resolution and reconciliation
Seem millions of miles away
Remember
The greatest of all is love
It is the pulse that runs the universe
Slow down and listen
Feel it running through
Your veins
Ask the question –
What does love look like?
Give imagination free reign
Wait for your thoughts to form
Then get ready
Bring a friend, sister or brother
Go do that good
You are inspired to do.
© 2017 Julie Clark
Be Your Best
Be your best
Come alive
Breathe in life
Inspire me
With your love
With your courage
Be your best
Find a way
Show the way
I will follow
Be my best
Together we
Sow the seeds
Of love and courage
© 2017 Julie Clark
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