Radically Happy

He is the heart / Pumping life / To every cell / Of our skeletal body // Nourishing / Reviving / Rebuilding…

My old bones / 
Have joined with the dead ones / 
From the battlefield of my youth // I feel trapped / 
Caught / 
Enmeshed…

Seeing the battlefield / With the bones of my enemies / And my friends / From long ago…

Walking with a cane / 
I limp through a battlefield / 
I had fought for / 
And won / 
Many years before…

I am… / 
Seeing Jesus… / 
With a smile and a sledgehammer.

But that God Himself / 
Might forget / 
Would forget / 
Had already forgotten / 
And would punish / 
Us…

The land outside / 
Which we forgot existed / 
Is far more beautiful / 
And dangerous / 
Than we could have imagined…

I realize / 
We are not stars / 
Burning ourselves out…

Driving out the darkness / 
Of self-protection / 
Unforgiveness / 
And condemnation…

I do not / 
Blame them / 
For triggering / 
My fears // I accept / 
The blame / 
For triggering theirs…

Jesus is flying / 
Over my altar-cum-platform / 
He ruined / 
When He launched from it…

The altar I had sacrificed / 
To build a platform for Jesus / 
In the presence of my adversaries / 
Collapses under His weight…

Brick by painful brick / I disassemble / What took me / So long to build…

My tribesmen / 
See me falling down in worship / 
Between my “rogue” altar and Jesus / 
And jump to conclusions…

They ignore / Any evidence / That contradicts / Their self-righteous rage // I start to react / With rage of my own / Against their hypocrisy…

They arm for battle / Work themselves up into a frenzy / And surround me // Spewing arguments / Threats / Falsehoods / Ultimatums…

God smiles / 
Because He knows / 
What I am feeling / 
What I want // Even / 
Especially / 
When I lack the words / 
Or even the concepts / 
To ask…

Then this world / Is filled / With the knowledge / Of the glory / Of God // As the waters cover the sea…