Three Wishes

 Three Wishes

There’s no genie in the bottle,

No it doesn’t work that way

I don’t expect that rubbing some old lamp 

Will change our fortunes today

There’s no bigger illusion than to trust in worthless things

It’s only misery that that road brings

But if I had a moment, of magic on my hands, If I could end the tragic, or help you see God’s plan.

I’d wish all y’all never know the full sting of sin and death

Wounds cut so deep and cut so strong they can take away your breath

I’d pray you knew love like none you’ve seen around 

And you’d feel the touch, the touch of grace unbound

There’s no tiny leprechaun granting gold at the end of some rainbow. 

And that Midas touch landed less riches than sorrow

Yet we chase all the same after treasures we may never know

down that not so golden brick road

But if I had a moment, of magic on my hands, if I could help you see beyond the troubles, beyond the daily demands

I’d wish all y’all would find the rest, the refresh of the weary

The breath of God, blowing through your troubles

With a warm and gentle fury

I’d pray you’d know love like none you’ve seen around

And you’d feel the love, an abiding love profound

You know there isn’t any magic up in that falling star

maybe its a picture of just how we landed where we are.  

A bright streak across a darkened sky

Like a small imitation of a brighter enduring light

Our wreckage catching fire on it’s long way down

So if I had a moment, of magic on my hands, if I could reach across the space and time that this life’s left between us

I’d wish truth and grace and peace and love were the rule not the exception

That you would find yourselves at their intersection

That no matter where you turn you’d see the face of hope and mercy

And you’d feel the love, the only perfect love around

When it comes to wishes, legend has it you only get a few.  What would it mean, how would it do, if these simple things were what I wished for you.

Carry This Memory

Carry this Memory

Rows and rows of tombstones among miles of graves.  There’s millions of stories here among all these names. Every one cherished to someone they knew.  Stories untold to many, unknown to me and you. 

Were they a hero, a fighter, a family man

Were they the type to always lend a helping hand.  Who were these folks now long since past - and who will make their memory last

Who’s going to carry this memory

When the good Lord takes the light from their eyes 

When the things they’ve seen, when all the places they’ve been fade like shadows in the sunrise.  Who’s going to carry this memory.

Some won’t ever be on a statue, They’ll never make the headline news.  It only takes a generation, one or maybe two, for history to forget your name - and move on to something new.  When all the world has moved on, like a ripple under the ocean’s waves - who will care again for the stories, buried in these graves.  

When the engraving becomes distorted - ruined and so frail. The markers get hard to recognize and the weeds grow taller than the tales. A million little stories no one will ever tell…

So who will carry these memories

The bits and pieces of those we loved

Records of a people marked by the pitches an unremarkable life can throw

Who will carry these memories

If a life is more than the sum of it’s parts did these bread crumbs leave a trail through the woods of these years.  Is this life telling the story of bigger things to come - the story of the one who will wipe away the tears…

Who’s going to carry this memory

The only one that really matters 

A savior broken and bleeding and battered 

for me and for you

The victory of a risen king - of conquering death and the grave for eternity

Who will carry this memory 

Fault Lines

Fault Lines

Standing in the garden - resting in the cool of the shade,

It was their choice, it was plain as day

Staring at the fruit, the words echoing in their heads

Whatever was going through their thoughts,

We all know where the actions led,

I can almost hear Adam saying…

I think we’ve crossed a line

Suddenly this fruit we’ve tasted

Doesn’t seem so sweet

Though our eyes have been opened

It’s only death we see.

Can’t say you didn’t warn us

Can’t say you didn’t guide

Yet all the same we chose the lie

If life’s moments read like pictures

I wonder what you’d make of this

When we’ve wandered way beyond the limits 

We say we want to make things better

We say we’re ready to move on

To live like tomorrow’s grander

If we can make it to the dawn

but it isn’t just our thinking,

Or our minds that we have lost…

I think we’ve crossed some line

Somewhere in the sand

Where what once was common sense

now seems hard to understand.

We’ve chosen to bend and crawl

When we had the chance to stand

I think we’ve crossed some line, 

And somehow things got out of hand.

and it doesn’t make a difference, how we wish things could have been.

It doesn’t change our standing, it doesn’t fix things again

It seems we’ve crossed some line

And things can never be the same

We can’t just pack these bags and go back from whence we’ve came

How quickly we’ve lost even the illusion of control

And if it was up to me, I’d step right back across

Hoping foolishly that perhaps no one saw me on the other side

A momentary misjudgment,

After all it wasn’t by much this time

I’d minimize the damage, of the innocence that was lost.

But what’s happened here is not easily undone

What’s done I’m afraid is done.

I think we’ve crossed some line

This giant fault of wayward pride

The hubris of propping up something that’s already dead inside

Whether flesh or bone, it could never have survived.

But for us he crossed a line,

Not just some marker in the sand

a chasm wider than we will ever fully understand

What started in the garden, still haunts this life today

Through tragic ends, love still wins and will be made well one day

God Grant You Rest

 God Grant You Rest

I’m sure this isn’t what you expected.

Heaven knows neither did we

And we struggle to settle the difference between

What is and what we thought it should be

The crushing weight on these hopes and dreams

Can sometimes be hard to take.

And in those very moments 

Jesus reminds us he died for our sake,

So as the sun sets on this long day

As you close your eyes and lay down your head, 

I pray God will grant you rest

It was far too early, seemed like it was not your time

But it isn’t up to you, and neither was this choice mine

Now you’re gone and there’s more we wish we’d said

There’s always more we could have said.

Certainly we didn’t always see eye to eye

Sometimes I’m sure we couldn’t even say why

You’ve had your struggles and I’ve had mine

I guess it’s one of life’s mysteries,

How stupid things can put so much distance

So much empty ground, between you and me

So this is my lament for the ones we’ve lost

We naturally would have wished for you to stay

I guess it just doesn’t really work that way

Sometimes we do all we can to hold on

And what we can’t control slips through our hands

But I know the one who knows best,

And so I pray God grants you rest.

I can do hard things, but that doesn’t mean I want to

we groan with the struggles of life’s affliction

Our actions can betray us and leave us without choice

And we are held still by the thread of our convictions

So keep looking to love to be your voice

When the pains of injustice bring tears to our eyes

It’s only Jesus, that can finally wipe them dry

So as you tread into uncharted lands

We pray you’re holding securely to Jesus hand

as you travel ahead to what lies beyond

I pray you join in heaven’s song

May God grant you rest

So this is my lament for the ones we’ve lost

We naturally would have wished for you to stay

I guess it just doesn’t really work that way

Sometimes we do all we can to hold on

And what we can’t control slips through our hands

But I know the one who knows best,

And so I pray God grants you rest.

Remind me

 Because sometimes we forget...

Remind Me

There’s things I can’t see clearly

I wander around like I’m blind

Forgetting what should be remembered

Like a man who’s lost his mind 

This broken world spins like a busted tilt a whirl

And we hold on for dear life

Hoping through this long day

We’ll somehow survive the night

If I’ve forgotten who I am, remind me

If I’ve grown beyond the childlike things

I should never leave behind, remind me

Take me by this outstretched hand 

and guide me back to you, remind me

Funny how I am prone to forget

Quickly I look ahead and focus on “not yet” 

But now as I look to the past, 

there’s questions I’ve answered 

that should have never been asked

Sometimes my decisions put me in places

I never should have been

There are times I land in places 

I never would have chosen

And my map plots nothing

But confusing lines

If I’ve lost the path and lost my way, remind me

lead me back, put my feet on solid ground and remind me

Take me by this outstretched hand

And guide me back to you, remind me

I compare myself to others’ view 

More times than I can count

Forgetting that keeping up with the jones’

Is not what it’s about

At times the mirror’s a dull reflection 

hiding the real truth, 

that what I see is detailed in ways 

that hide outside my view

I can’t seem to see clearly with these eyes alone

When I can’t see the image you placed in me, remind me

When I see myself instead of the savior in my place, remind me

Take me by this outstretched hand

And guide me back to you, remind me

When I can’t see heaven because this world gets in the way, remind me

Lift the scales of myself from these heavy eyes and remind me

Take me by this outstretched hand

And guide me back to you, remind me.

Of Wise Men and Shepherds

 In listening to Christmas songs, I realized after the story of the birth of Christ, not much more is said about the Wise Men or the Shepherds.  So that got me thinking and I came up with this...

Of Wise Men and Shepherds

Wise Men:

We were labeled wise, we were called kings 

We left our land headed toward the east

You know we travelled here from afar

Following on faith that lone bright star

Bearing gifts of majesty

Bearing gifts fit for a king

Shepherds:

Hark those heralds, those angels sang

And we went to see that newborn king

A lowly shepherd, why to me

Did angels speak of this mystery

The savior born in Bethlehem

God had come to dwell with man.

All: Oh what an amazing thing.

Shepherds: When the angels sang I came to see

Wise Men: Once I laid my gifts before thee

Shepherds: I left my sheep, my lot in life 

Wise Men: I traveled long, both day and night

All: to see a savior born that night

To see a glimpse of love’s pure light

Shepherds:

I went and told them, I told all that I had seen

On that night so long ago, 

But I remember the angels, I was there you know

I’m just a shepherd out on these plains

Feeding the sheep, in some ways we’re the same

Feeding the sheep it’s just what I do

I’m not a carpenter, but a man just like you

Wise Men:

Heading your words I headed back another way

And it’s a been a while since that day

I have nothing that you need, I have no gifts left to bring

They call me wise, but I couldn’t see

All my vision is so earthly

You’re like no other king we would have been expecting

All:  Oh it’s the strangest thing

Shepherds:  I know what I saw but I don’t understand

Wise Men:  weren’t you the king to lead this nation?

Shepherds:  we were witness to events beyond our station

Wise Men:  this man is like no other king I’ve seen

All:  still we wait, knowing there’s more

What of this savior (what of this king)

You can almost feel there’s something heaven’s waiting for...

Wise Men:

Again I’m a visitor in a foreign land

I’ve come once again to see this man

I alone of what once were three 

Travel again to see this king

But now he’s gone...

Shepherds:

I saw the Cross - I heard about the empty tomb

And now he’s appeared time and again

Still after all this time he’s hoping to find room

Not in an inn or amongst walls of stone

But among the hearts of men

All:  oh its the most marvelous thing

Wise man:  tell me what you know

Shepherds:  now at last we understand

Wise men: I gave my gift but you gave more

Shepherds: by faith, open heaven’s door

All:  it’s a wonderful story to behold

The boy, the man, the great I Am

The king once born in Bethlehem

Job

So I was thinking about the story of Job the other day after some discussion with the kids of the song “Broken Praise” from the Music Inspired by the Story.  That’s a good song, if you haven’t heard it...and curiously enough someone at work used the phrase “the patience of Job” - those two things got me thinking - and this is the result of those thoughts...

Job

I guess you could say it’s been a trying day
Who could have guessed by evening I’d be

Just a broken man sitting amongst broken pottery

Robbed of my children, robbed of my wealth

So much has been taken from this husk from this shell.

I never meant to be a picture of patience

And I never signed up for this suffering

I spend these passing moments

Wondering what the next will bring

What does a man do when he’s lost everything

I feel like a man that’s been pushed to the brink

Arms length from death, I’ve lost everything

Couldn’t imagine this morning that by nightfall

This was all I’d have left

Shall I accept good, but not trouble in life

I never thought I’d stand guilty before even my friends

My dignity shredded by the things they contend

What kind of friend would comfort like this

Who invited friends such as these

Who know not my heart and only add to my misery

I’ve never been quite this low before

Knowing in my heart I’m not ashamed

I can’t help but think I’ve reached a desperate place

Because I’m asking God if I couldn’t have

Just been erased.  Never breathed, never spoken,

Had only these eyes just never awoken.

I’m just a man that’s been pushed to the brink

But while I know that God doesn’t owe me anything

I only request an audience, just a chance to make my plea

Hoping and praying that God hasn’t forgotten me.  

then he speaks from the storm and I am undone

How could I have hoped to contend with this one

Who holds the stars in their place and binds the sea

Surely I’ve spoken of things well beyond me

He speaks from the storm and all else is still

the storehouses of earth lay silent

created and held by his will

Surely I’ve spoken of things I can’t understand

Not a word not a whisper escapes from his hand

I’m just a man that was pushed to the brink

God set me straight on a number of things

He’s spoken and answered and I couldn’t form words

I’m here overwhelmed by the things I’ve heard

My requests my arguments - they now seem so shallow

Where I once thought I was right, his name is hallowed

He’s answered and I can speak no more

Despite my faults, I’ve been restored

All to the glory of my God, my Lord