My Only Song

My song is broken, shattered by the screams, the knife-like voices of life, throbbing in my ears. I bend down, bewildered, to pick the notes up off the floor, but the heavy pieces will not budge. My hands weren’t made for this. I remember Your voice, how it softens the screams into minor chords that […]

Surrender

Blow, gentle wind, blow— across the burdened trees, and bend the branches low. The fury of the sun scorched what he had won before his reign was done. And all the leaves are charred and doomed, but clinging hard to the life that left them scarred. Fall, weary leaves, fall, so the wind […]

Changed

It’s hard to watch the hands of time, dismantling the past. unscrewing memories, packing up the artifacts in boxes to bury someplace. The house I loved, taken board by board, is not the place it was before— but lonely, struggling to stand, in a forgotten field. My elders—where are they? Time has damaged […]

More than a Dream

More than a dream that I wake from, snatching with empty, aching hands at the wisps of light fading fast to darkness— You are the One I wake to every time, unfaded brilliance, strong and sure, the only true God. –

Prayer for a Pure Heart

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. -Matthew 5:8 Lord, build around my heart a wall of grace to sift the daily facts as they come in that nothing but the truth would find a place and nothing but Your love would dwell within. Refuse despair an entrance to […]

A Night of Rowing

Tonight we cross the waters black as coal. We row beneath the stars we blotted out. The only sound—the sloshing of the waves, relentless echoes of the knife-like pain. We row alone like exiles in the dark. And now you speak who know my troubles best. You feel with me the wounds that plague my […]

God of Beyond

In wisdom dwelling, high holy mountain: pure, pure, none brighter than He. High in His praise, the God of Forever. Now in His glory, forever will be. – In lovingkindness, kinder than rainfall. Clean, clean, none gracious as He. Kind in forgiveness. The God of the downcast, Here in His presence, His mercy we see. […]

All of You

Unto the word of God, my heart at last was moved. Before Your holy face, at length I knew my sin. I cried out to the Lord, released the crimes I loved. Your holy grace, like rain, has washed me pure within. – CHORUS Your work alone! And nothing that I do, before Your throne, […]

Reformation Hymn

All the doctrines of redemption, stand confirmed and stand alone. Truths eternal and unaltered, freely offered, freely known. Words that mark the road to heaven, grant us peace and end our strife, turn us toward our Lord of glory, point the path for truth and life. – Scripture only, not tradition, true foundation flawless guide. […]

Orange Flames and Firewood

Shadows stretch across the stone to grasp the crisscrossed spears and rounded shield. A nearby fire, fighting back the dark, and glistening on the spear tips’ hardened steel casts its glow upon a wizened man. He sits beside his grandson, gazing at the flame. The boy is playing with a map. “The Empire of Assyria,” […]