spent

coming off a rather difficult week at work with encounters of the draining kind with people who have fought a war with their fears and lost and now need to work out their dread on available service providers. after a few such encounters of which one can only sing chris tomlin's song rather helplessly and rather defeatedly. may i see christ in my neighbor, again.

the thief's song

the dying thief rejoiced to see the fountain in his day

and there may i, though vile as he, wash all my sins away

the soul is flawed but the song is true

variations on the theme of mask

• mask off to talk 
• mask off to cough
• mask off to clean nose
• mask under the nose and covering the mouth
• mask under the nose and mouth and covering the chin
• mask hanging off one ear
• mask in the bag
• mask at home 

why do we call it good

surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

the closest we have come to turmoil and discord and uncertainty and real fear for a long time.

the closest i have come to unvarnished human nature for some time too.

the impatience and self-centeredness and graspingness and inconsideration.

the clinging to the old ways the reluctance to try something new.

but also the kindness of strangers the creativity of those who have nothing to lose.

the cheerful comradeship of being in the same boat together.

the provision that we only realize at the end of yet another day.

the dawning wonder that it is because of His mercies that we are not destroyed.

though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that we through His poverty might become rich.
i guess that is good.

broken pieces

how lonely sits the city that was full of people!
how like a widow has she become, she who was great among the nations!
... she weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks;... she has none to comfort her...

 how did we look so aside care so little ignore so willfully

the lost the homeless the migrant and the hungry

palm sunday 2020

in a way i do not understand

palm sunday this year jogs me into thinking

what it must be like

to see calamity 

and pain

and fear

and sorrow

and rending of the soul

coming upon us 

and not being able to do anything about it

except 

to drink from the cup

my LORD has drunk from the cup

who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross
so help us endure