...

Violent tragedies tear through unbelieving eyes,
unveiled minds cradle the bitter remorse.
Pursuit of truth left them broken,
it flooded over the headstrong.
Now seasoned with rage and torn with malice,
they impersonate impersonality.
Falling into dreams of nothing,
they wait for the many sunsets to come.
One after the other they come,
filling the silence with colour,
blood and tears making the paint.
Years roll over and darkness enters life,
as graceful as a pirouette.
Like shadows in streams linger,
they collect the memories thrown across the shore,
by devils disguised as treasures.
Time continues to creep on,
like love,
it fails them also.

-Michael Harris

Consume vs Create

My eyes open wider when i let myself be taught. When i let the spirit of God work through my experiences of light and of darkness, i can see and feel more clearly with a heart and mind of revelation. God's truth, once meshed with the life and experience of a human being acts similarly to conscience. The thing about God though is that he does not often force us to change into a deeper sense of knowing, he waits upon those who will respond to his call to live out His kingdom. But the truth is somehow written on our hearts, that it makes sense to those whom God reveals it. One of these unspoken or hidden truths has come to me tonight as a culmination of feelings and errings over this year, a general theme in my thought patterns that now has a name and identity.

In life, we have two options, to consume or to create. This will generally apply to anything involving people and the kingdom. The worst type of consumption i have discovered to date is the consumption of people as commodities, something to be bought and sold, as inhuman material objects, as resources. The first and most obvious disgrace is that of the slave trade, in which people are bought and sold as sex slaves, cheap labor, militia, illegally adopted children etc.. (for more information, visit www.stopthetraffik.org) But even in our everyday lives, we take and take and take from the people we meet, and we value them by their equivalent worth to us by whatever need or deficit we have. Just for a few examples...
*The employer who treats a staff member purely on an input/output basis without any recognition of them as a human being
**The man/woman who satisfies his/her sexual desires with pornography at the expense of the sons and daughters, mothers and fathers that produce it.
***The musician that only appreciates his fans during a show, then later disregards them
****The many of us who continue to buy tea and coffee at a cheap price at the expense of poor farmers/producers over the other side of the world.
*****The person who uses others as pawns to gain social status or position, whether it be in business or in their personal life.

These kinds of thing have become very apparent to me lately, but the thing that i realised about all these and similar situations is that they can all be redeemed, there is another side to the coin, in each scenario, there is a chance to create! I encourage to seek for the opportunity to create...

You imagine what it could be like if we saw our relationships a bit differently, if we treated people with dignity and respect, if we escaped from this cultural mindset and world view of dog-eat-dog and profit margins!

Pain brings us closer

This recent month has brought me through something deeply painful in my life. The kind of pain that cripples you and brings you sleepless nights, agony and sorrow. One thing that i have discovered about myself or my life i guess, is that there is only one undeniable thing that seems to keep me hanging on. Even if hanging on looks remarkably like hopelessness and depression. The one thing that somehow sustains me is that God IS... He IS... People and relationships, circumstance and status, worth and value can all fall away, but one thing that will never change is God. Because he just IS, and always was. For me, He will always become, right at that last dying painful moment, the certainty that keeps me going... It is at points like these, I believe we are closest to God, in our moments of utter dependency. At these times, there is such a clarity and honesty about the way we relate to Him, and how we feel about Him. If anything, this must give us hope. My wish for all of us who are hurting and lost in these moments of life is this... that we would find God's Peace, and learn to become at one with that peace. To let go of all the things that we attempt to control and manipulate, no matter how painful. To just sit, and feel His presence, and in that moment to know, that He IS...

Love

Sometimes it's hard to know what to do, in the face of such radical, intense love that makes you want to cry. So i just sat, and was silent. So over-run by my emotions, so much gratitude that i could not speak. I just remained silent and thanked my God that He is who He is. This demonstration of love to me was so powerful, that i felt powerless to return anything, except to realise that there was nothing i could do to prove myself. Nothing i could do to earn more of Gods love and the love of my fellow house mates, and nothing i could do to loose it.