wonder and poetry

just one thing is clear to me

there's always more than what appears to

And when the light's just right

I swear I see poetry

poetry, pat green

i remember before i went to seminary, there were so many things i was sure of in life. even my opinions were pretty darn close to the truth! or so i thought. his living word, his mercy and grace, my loving wife, my wonderful children, close friends and circumstances in my life, have all, since, lovingly conspired to soften my dogmatic tendencies and create a wider berth for mystery and wonder. i am thankful.

really, most days i struggle to explain things around me. i tend to stick to the safe and obvious. i'm moses among sheep, unaware, dull and thick. then the simple and amazing will happen and i blunder into seeing it unfold. this happened yesterday as i called a friend who had recently lost his 96 year old mother. he was up north at her home at the time. he had been praying for her salvation for years. he asked others to pray, too. and his mother didn't want to hear about jesus, no sir. she had lost a daughter early in her life and was closed off to any so-called deity who would let her daughter die. she carried that for these many years and here's my friend telling me this on the phone and i'm thinking to myself, oh this is awful - his mother had died an unbeliever. i was trying to come up with something comforting to say and i could not think of a thing.

then he tells me that a few days before she passes, she realizes she is terminally ill and in that moment, he tells her the story of jesus and how he had saved him. when he finishes, she tells him that she believes that, she believes in jesus as her savior. and as he tells me i feel a genuine joy and amazement and i laugh and say praise the lord and laugh again in astonishment.

i had put his mother in the out of touch and unreachable category in my mind. i knew how these things turned out. but the holy spirit had opened up her eyes to the truth, just days before she died at the age of 96. i have no other explanation than, well, that's god. i hung up the phone and sat back in my chair and just stared out the window at the church door where i serve. i just shook my head and laughed and said praise the lord, praise you lord. his ways are not mine.

near the end of the day of working through stuff and issues with various degrees of direct relevance to god, i see the wonder of our savior saving a 96 year old saint, who had written him off long ago and i had written off in a matter of minutes. the big ol' mystery was leaning right in on me at that moment, light beaming in through my window and to me, it was poetry.

each day he speaks the poetry. the very fact that i rise to recognize a new day is because he has spoken his prose. i am ever responding to my creator, my savior, my guide. i am learning to hear his three part harmony above the din of nullifying noise. my ear is trained by the word. i am stilled in an ever-moving world to know he is over all things in my life and this world working redemptively through his son, jesus christ. in the natural, glimpses of the supernatural: common bushes afire. clinging to the cleft, i have no explanation. i take off my shoes and listen to the poetry.

body and soul

I want to live where soul meets body,

And let the sun wrap its arms around me

And bathe my skin in water cool and cleansing

And feel, feel what its like to be new

soul meets body, death cab for cutie

in this life, each one of us has a soul and body. philosophers often debate whether we are dichotomist in nature; basically, possessing a material body and an immaterial soul. or, as others posit, we are essentially trichotomist; we possess a material body, an immaterial soul and an immaterial intellect, mind or heart. honestly, to me both views have their merits and i am not smart enough to argue either side, not to mention that such existential wrangling eventually loses me in the house of mirrors of my mind and i am quickly confused, bewildered and given to great tired-headedness (not a word), wanting desperately to escape.

the material side of life is well known. we all have bodies. carbon-based containers for the reductionists and for the singers and poets, sculpted forms, unique and beautiful, almost like gods, but a little less. our bodies grow and change. some parts wear out, some become diseased and must be cut upon or cut out. eventually, though, our bodies wear out and return to their seminal state, dust.

the immaterial part of life is more mystery. it is evident in its effects and affects, but unlike our body, it cannot be seen with eyes nor touched with hands. however, it is no less present. it can be measured and experienced, but in much different ways than the body, the material. to take from the reductionists, the immaterial can be simply stated as our personality. but it is more. that which is essentially and uniquely you and me. living souls. the immaterial part can change also, but it does not die.

last monday night, i stood with a dear family around the body of their elderly mother/grandmother, saint. she had just died. her body was motionless, becoming cold. i spoke in soft tones to the family members. they spoke of love, of memories of their dear one. i read from the bible. we cried some. we prayed. i reminded them that her soul was now in the presence of her saviour, jesus. the hope of joy in the midst of being bereft. we found comfort in that truth. but her body remained before us and it was clear that death was present. the animation of the soul, spirit, was absent.

it seems odd, even to me, that in the gravity of describing this stark event about a real person and her family experiencing death, i speak of the song, soul meets body by death cab for cutie. at the risk of sounding macabre (it is not, in any way, my intention) at worst and just plain awkward at best, i want to sing the line i want to live where the soul meets body. a desire, a plea to live this life as a whole, not disassociated or fragmented.

you and i are intended to live body and soul. heart, soul, mind and strength working together, integrated for a greater purpose than the individual parts or their sum. fully human ordained w/ dignity, the image of our creator, the stewards of dominion in this world. we, the marvel of cherubim and seraphim. yet stained and therefore dying. tragedy in our end. stain to sting.

but maybe more sinister, the stain works to separate the soul from the body in this life. in our living. this world and its ways is no friend to robust and vibrant living, body and soul. each day presents a daunting challenge to live full, free and whole. the temptation of the body is to be controlled by its desires or blinded by its worship. the temptation of the soul is to become its own god, prideful in knowledge disdaining sheer might. the battle rages constant, subtle, and insipid. left to our own in this fight, we make tactical blunders, strategic mistakes. the treachery of body warring against the soul and the soul pursuing supremacy over the body can fool us into choosing sides. personal civil war ensues. inner turmoil begins to disintegrate the integration of original design.

our creator never intended for the body and soul to be separated. living where soul meets body. material and immaterial existing together in holistic harmony in this life and in eternity. but the stain desires to thwart the living now and steal forever. so the creator stepped out of eternity into our history clothed in the body of a baby, divinity and humanity existing in perfect yet undiluted mixture, incarnate christ. in eventual death, offering abundant robust life now and forever. a gracious gift to those who believe in the incarnate christ. proclaiming good tidings as death is defeated by one's death and resurrection. so that for those in christ death may separate the body and soul, but only temporarily. for we will live where soul meets body in eternity because of jesus.

and so as the body of this precious saint lay motionless before us that monday evening, we stayed ourselves on the truth that her soul that was now in the presence of her savior would someday soon be clothed again with a new body, raised to live eternally, joyfully, with no stain, defect or decay. death defeated. life in the son, body and soul. and in this we found courage and comfort.

*these are my own thoughts about the songs i listen to. i, in no way, am trying to communicate nor convey the artist's original meaning for their song. these are my thoughts alone.