Love I Cannot Comprehend

(Written on June 22, 2011. Left mostly as it was, to be true to who I was when I originally wrote it.)

Take me to that place of worship
Where all are equal and free
I’ll enter into the joy that I’ve felt
For in the presence of God there is peace.
Life is full of storms and trials
I lost sight of the light for a little while
Teach me, Rabbi, teach me please
To stand in the rain and still live in peace.
Teacher, I get so confused
The trials of life, they make no sense
Father, I forget to trust
That things will work out in the end.
God above, it is my fear
That storms come when I pull away
But if the trials are lessons from You
My false fears rob me of the chance to train.
LORD OF HOSTS, we rush in with a battle cry
But when I’m faced with the blade, I’m shy.
I wish I could hurry myself along,
But I know, in time, You will make me strong.
It’s because I believe in Your faithfulness
That I dare to try when things make no sense
And even when I hide from the job,
And You, of Your due glory, rob,
I know Your patience has no end
Your love I cannot comprehend.
And though again I’m weary and weak
You will be all that I seek.
Renew me again; set me from weak flesh free
Take me to the place
Where again I’ll have peace.

Bring me back to You, O Awesome God
I’ll find peace when I hear my Shepherd’s Voice,
In loving grace, You still all my fears,
Fill me with peace despite all the thunderous noise.
Full of peace at last, I’m swept away in Your Voice.

Christians and Social Justice Part 3: They said, We said

Controversy. It leaps at us from our social media screens, weaves its way through academia, murmurs a loud undercurrent in polite circles whenever a daring topic is broached. Matters of justice are as much a cause of controversy as anything.

Let’s take a current issue as an example. Continue reading Christians and Social Justice Part 3: They said, We said

Christians and Social Justice Part 2: When Mercy Gets Messy and Justice Gets Personal

Isaiah 58:9b-11a

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,

with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry,

and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,

then your light will rise in the darkness,

and your night will become like the noonday.

The LORD will guide you always.”

These verses from Isaiah 58 are quoted often in conversations about justice in church settings. Even more commonly quoted are verses six to nine. A yoke is a wooden frame fastened to the necks of two animals and connected to a cart which they must pull. Here God tells us to get rid of the ‘yoke of oppression’ – human beings are not meant to be enslaved and subject to cruelty by one another and treated as less than human. People should not gain good things by trampling on other people; the many should not be exploited for the benefit of a few. Continue reading Christians and Social Justice Part 2: When Mercy Gets Messy and Justice Gets Personal

Christians and Social Justice Part One: What the Church Does

Today I am beginning a three part series on what justice looks like in the church. Often justice is made out to be a political issue, when really it is just as much a spiritual one.

“He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” – Micah 6:8 NIV

Social Justice means many different things to many different people. For now I’m broadly defining it as undoing the work of oppression, working to make a world of equality, and respecting and advocating for all those made in God’s image – every man, woman, and child on Earth. Continue reading Christians and Social Justice Part One: What the Church Does