These Days

Buffoons in full wartime regalia are invading the homes of our neighbors 

People’s workplaces are a hunting ground too, where desperation labors to scratch out an existence 

Where terrified brown-skinned human beings show up for menial work so they can feed the children they will be violently forced to abandon 

Somehow

in this nauseating stew of corruption, 

the entitled and inhumane deal-makers… 

the proven felons 

and documented pedophiles

are still calling the shots.

These days, the good guys appear to be finishing last.

White supremacy is having its day. 

The death rattle of the patriarchy is being funded by the elites and oligarchs. 

And the church of Jesus looks on.

A grieving remnant of them in horror

with tear-stained cheeks 

and stomachs roiling in disgust.

Disgust at the files…

disgust at the willful blindness preached at volumes to fully drown out every word of the sermon on the mount…

disgust at the sacrilege on display at a national prayer breakfast…

and disgust at the inconceivable complicity of those claiming the name of our redeemer. 

When?

Please, WHEN will any of this be redeemed?

Lord, how long?

Lord, how long will the wicked be allowed to gloat?

Psalm 94 asked the same.

Lord, have mercy.

These days, I feel around with chapped winter hands, fumbling in the dark, trying to hold fast to tiny bits of increasingly elusive hope. 

I wake up determined to DO something helpful 

To reflect heaven’s light SOMEWHERE. 

ANYWHERE.

And too often close my eyes at the end of the day defeated by no measurable illumination.

The work is wearying.

These days, cruelty and disinformation are more plentiful than cat reels as I scroll. 

Lord God, I miss the blissful naivety of watching cats, greeting neighbors, and relying on my siblings in the church to be salt and light.

(📸 photo credit Galen Guengerich)