Joy and singing

Haiku for a blooming desert

When God’s Redeemed come

back to Zion, deserts burst

forth with joy and song.

The celebration;

a measure of God’s glory,

here, with God’s people.

Be strong, do not fear;

your God is here. God will come

and God will save you.

Blind eyes will open

and deaf ears will be unstopped.

The lame leap like deer!

In the wilderness

water will spring up, and streams

flow in the desert.

Life will be God’s gift

in the desert, and among

people ev’ry where.

God will make a way

for the faithful. To a realm

of safety and hope.

The song continues

with God’s people rejoicing

in God’s grace and love.

© Ken Rookes 2022

the powers of this world

In the Gospel story of the temptations, Jesus is engaging the powers of this world--the underbelly of human existence, that is embodied for the purpose of telling the story in the figure of the devil. The powers of this world are the great resistant forces, largely uncontrollable, that hold people hostage, captive to the institutions and systems that carry us along, the forces that drive the spirit of the age promising life but leading to death. The powers of this world seek to render us powerless, before the immensity of the world's problems.

• These are the powers that say, "No one really wants war, but the bodies keep piling up."
• That say, "No one really wants homelessness, but we can't seem to do anything about it."
• That say, "No child needs to die of hunger anywhere, but especially in the wealthiest nation on earth, and yet they do."
• These are the powers that say, "I am not really living, but simply being driven along by forces beyond my control."

http://day1.org/2694-choose_life

if you go to the desert

If you therefore go to the desert to be rid of all the dreadful people and all the awful problems in your life, you will be wasting your time. You should go to the desert for a total confrontation with yourself. For one goes to the desert to see more and to see better. One goes to the desert especially to take a closer look at the things and people one would rather not see, to face situations one would rather avoid, to answer questions one would rather forget.
-Alessandro Pronzato
Meditations on the Sand
http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/lent1a.html

Streams in the desert

Streams in the Desert.

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom… Isa 35:1

Raise your voices, faithful people
as you tread with determination
the kingdom road.
The journey is long and uncertain,
some say foolish,
but it is the way of promise;
with glorious Zion the destination,
and its Lord as our home.
Journey with those whose ears have been unstopped,
that they might hear the songs of the faithful.
Walk with those whose eyes have been opened
to see the surprising defiance of desert blooms.
Travel in company with leg-leaping comrades,
no longer accepting the sad label
that declares them lame.
You shall not lose your way.
Formerly this was a land of despair,
despondently arid and dust dry desert.
Now, with newly opened eyes of faith
we see the joyful springs;
water flowing among green reeds and rushes;
sparkling with life
and filled with hope.

© Ken Rookes