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12/16/2018 0 Comments repeat the sounding joybefore i went to church this morning, i read a few essays from the book, “the reckonings,” a book that pursues questions about the nature of justice & injustice in our culture. & it’s undoing me in a lot of ways, drawing me to challenge my cultural worldview as i see it & unveiling systemic truths & rhythms of which i cannot read & stomach without asking myself what i’m going to do about it. without completely diving in to the specifics of the book & the parts that struck me the most, i showed up at church feeling complicated & confused, neck deep in the tension of while there are injustices running rampant in the world, i’m enjoying a quiet sunday morning, worshipping the king of that same world. & while i’m still reconciling those two concepts & wrestling with what i’m going to do to raise my voice against injustice — which seems to me like this huge monster wearing a million different masks — this sunday morning advent message fell on my soul in a way that made me want to take what i learned & put it in a poem & hand it out to everyone i know & don’t know. it’s near impossible to capture all the layers of the first Christmas in a few short words, but here is my attempt : : for the ones who feel abandoned & for the ones who are ashamed & for the ones who are in anguish & for the ones who are afraid, the God of the galaxies comes to you in a cradle with the cross in His mind. for the ones unseen & for the ones unloved & for the ones unknown & for the ones undone, the God of the galaxies comes to you in a cradle with the cross in His mind. : i sat in my chair after the message, while the songs played, bending under the weight of the Christmas story & our culturally warm view of the holidays & the soul-wrenching sadness many of us feel we have to hide this time of year & the idea that under the same sky, some are hiding gifts & others are hiding for their lives & how does the joy that God brings actually play out today & have we proclaimed Him, displayed Him, wrongly? half-heartedly? am i really seen? fully known & at the same time fully loved? was the cross enough & does God still care? these questions are still raw inside me, but i do know this : while there are no simple answers to heartache & suffering & injustice & anguish, there is a king who entered into it all & from the cradle to the cross to forever, He has declared Himself to be for the ones abandoned & ashamed & anguished & afraid & unseen & unloved & unknown & undone. i don’t have much else from this morning except to say that this is you & this is me & this is God : redeemer of our worst mistakes, restorer of our broken stories, healer of our open wounds & savior of our hurting hearts.
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