How was your summer? Part 2

This summer has challenge everything that I am, in an incredible way. I saw my fears and prejudices replaced by the grace and mercy of a loving God. I delved deeper into my understanding of injustice, poverty, and racism, though I will never fully understand those things unless I live them.

I experienced the hope created by a true community of faith in a broken place, as well as the way that brokenness can permeate if you let it. I was shown the importance of being a neighbor to all and loving all.

I discovered that independence can be harmful, that depending on others develops a trusting and faithful community unmatched by much else.

But more than all other things, I learned that love, the action not the noun, does in fact conquer all. Love changes hearts, changes families, changes communities, changes the world.

How was my summer?

More incredible that I could ever hope to express through words.

How was your summer? Part 1

This is a kind of poem I wrote. It doesn’t make a lot of sense.

That girl on the bus

That little boy/coach/hairdresser

The bus stop at Bisbee

The silent yet thunderous strength of community

The girl who always wants to touch the light

When a swingset becomes a boat, and the woodchips and ocean

Red clay in rain clogged streets

The anticipation between the lightning and thunder

Unnecessarily formal dinners

Floating in frigid waters

Being able to give directions

That song that moves my soul

The man on the other side of the glass

Those cornhole tournaments

Stick

Those neighbors that get involved

Incredible finds in piles of trash

Riding on shopping carts

The courage of those who paved the way

The fear that crumbles in the face of love

Those bus stop prayers

Never waiting for ideal circumstances

That man that couldn’t guess my name

The simple serenity of a sunrise

That open hydrant

The quiet and the loud

The girl on the bus.

I am an out of tune church piano

The shining light of hope is beauty

Beauty is infinite.