Bad Medicine

“There's nothing wrong with you.”

The doctors said as they did test after test.

Or at least that the story I heard

as his body wasted away.

Rail thin and wracked with pain

But there was another story

whispered in English so no one could

understand, of one test

that did come back postive.

And he just didn't want to face the results.

The first story I heard from his own lips,

and the lips of his mother. A sad story

about incompetent doctors

who saw obvious symptoms but drew no conclusions.

The second from his brother-in-law.

I met him on a hospital bed on his last night

and we read passages from Romans

and prayed to the Doctor.

And he found a peace that he had never known,

...and my friend, his brother-in-law said 

the change was remarkable.

Cambodia, Nazi Germany, the A-bomb

The Congo, Rwanda, Joseph Kony,

Stalin, North Korea, Saddam and Bin Laden...

And day by day one hears of the symptoms:

petty tyrants, corruption, greed, apathy,

oppression, slavery, injustice, theft, lies,

infidelity, abuse, deceit and murder...

Are the doctors incompetent?

“They have healed the wound of my people lightly,

saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.”

Jeremiah 8:11

...or is it that the world knows, but doesn't want

to face the truth of it's desperate state?

“...who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

Romans 1:18-20

I sure feel like I don't know much these days.

But I do know that yesterday
on a dark morning a

good man died, leaving a wife and

two young children.

I don't know 

who closed their eyes 

first,

but looking 

the other way 

never healed anyone.

A Little Higher

The street under construction, but the vendors around the corner

on the banks of the river were wetting feet and produce,

So they moved back onto the newly cemented road

And the waters rose a little higher.

First the house on the end of the street, building an extra platform

So the water couldn't touch them as they slept

But the waters rose, a little higher.

House by house it advanced, store by store

Street by street, curb by curb, conquering one structure at a time

Forcing relocation, then relocation again

Until even the main street was impassable

Homes unlivable moved to rented rooms, then to abandoned buildings

And still the waters rose, a little higher.

The bridge shut down to all but foot traffic

And smaller, narrower plank bridges were set up in place of sidewalks,

A slim course for the stream of people to pass

Attenuating balance above waters filled with

Fish and trash and splashing mer-children

Who went home at night with itchy eyes and irritated skin

From the sluggish waters that couldn't sweep away the filth

Fast enough, to sleep on damp boards above musty solutions,

Until at last

it started to recede

in the same way it came

one decimeter at a time

leaving a miry footprint

of sludge

and sand

and plastic bags.

10 meters down now and 

counting.

Recession

Rising rivers and

vengeful rain,

beating sun and

crying puppies.

Wasp stings and

backbiting,

hasty words that cannot be

retracted and

weights of silence.

Receding waters and

warming sun,

cut grass by the helping hand of a friend

and one more pup, still alive.

Forgiveness.

My world is full of

scattered thoughts and

incomplete sentences.

Redemption.

4am and 4am and 4am again.

One comes and

another goes

but I feel little moved by either.

Rest and rest and rest

people say.

But how can you rest

when there's so much need,

When you are working for the King...?

not for earning, not for works, but for love...

yet so tired.

Was this how Martha felt?

Truth and

grace and

strength and

peace

are all lost to

restlessness

and unnamed fears.

But there is One

who came

with perfect love

to cast out all fear...

if only I would

take His hand and

His yoke

and learn.