Life with an eternal quality,
not in some imagined heaven,
but here, among earth’s dust and grit;
permeated with deep truthings
that cut through all the bullshit*
of a connivingly ignorant world.
Let it roll, Jesus;
let your surprising friendship sweep over all
and catch us up in your swelling tide.
Let your presence become a crashing wave
to carry us sublimely
to a divine place of abundance;
where the authenticity is sharp
and captures one’s breath,
where joy sparkles with intensity,
and where life-restricting greed
and preoccupation with the self
encounter their equals in defiant actions
of liberation, justice and compassion.
Let it be a place where long-heralded
generosity is, at last, allowed to rule
and to sculpt a new reality.
Take us to this eternal-life place, Jesus;
where the faithful live with tears and laughter,
defying the fears of the wealthy,
confronting the powerful,
and silencing the rampant demagogues;
and where the reckless and the courageous ones
lovingly enact your outrageous vision
of hope and freedom.
*substitute the less-offensive bull dust if you prefer.
© 2011 Ken Rookes
