Caution Tape

Overwhelming compassion falling like the turned autumn leaves
Into the open hands of children with wide eyes and narrow futures
The click of heels down city sidewalks serving as a constant reminder of the separation
between the people who walk on the cold concrete and the people who sleep on it
Those whose purchases are kept in shopping bags and those whose lives are kept in the very same
Haunted souls and haunted eyes
Coffee cups filled with lattes and coffee cups filled with change
Why do we choose to be content with anthills when we could be building up mountains?

"God bless you!" cried out to turned backs and turned minds
I've heard that the chill of winter in the city is nothing compared to the cold hearts that inhabit it
When did it become normal to deem people unworthy of connection
Downcast eyes and parents holding their children's hands tighter than before
You can't keep them comfortable forever
Because there is nothing comfortable about feeling guilty and sheltered
Walking an easy path lit by street lights and love
While your brothers and sisters have stumbled in the dark

It's easy to believe in a God who blesses you
A God whose hand you can visibly see working in people and through people
Whose voice you can hear in conversations of kindness
But I cannot imagine that it is easy to find Him in judging eyes and the backs of heads
How do you build your life on the Rock
When you feel like rocks are being thrown at you daily?
I don't think I'll ever understand the type of faith that grows in deserts
Are there seeds of truth in barren soil?
Are there branches of life in burned down forests?

And still I believe that the goodness of the world outshines fear
Our problem is that we use the light of goodness to create shadows
We point to the darkness more often than we dwell in it
Sometimes it's easier to give than it is to share
We set up caution tape around our comfort zone and barriers around our point of view
The problem isn't that we refuse to cross or climb them
The problem is that we set them up in the first place
Humanity has created a "them" and an "us" instead of a "we"
Like reaching toward fire and getting burned
It may take dozens of tries before we stop blaming the flame and start blaming ourselves

To My Sisters

If a boy ever tells you you're beautiful, ask him what he thinks of your heart
Ask if he knows that you'd rather sip tea than drink coffee
That you love playing piano because it is always tangibly concrete
That sometimes you run not to get away, but just for the sake of running
That you're horrible at remembering birthdays.
If he doesn't, he's just another birthday to forget
If he does, say thank you

If another girl ever tells you that you need to wear certain shoes
and coat your lips with sticky gloss
Trust me, you don't
Your feet will just get blisters from walking circles around yourself
And your lips were not made to taste like candy they were made to speak your mind
Do not let your mind or your lips be shut by painted fingernails and girls you want to be like

Don't replace books with magazines
Their covers are designed to make you doubt every feature of yours
Don't you ever lower your IQ for the sake of conversation
And if the boy you're talking to likes ditzy girls, then you are not for him
Because you have things to say that could build up mountains and build up people
You are a warrior and a wonder

This world is content with settling
but baby, don't you fall into that trap
Settling may seem safe
But it is when plates of earth settle against each other that earthquakes are started
Don't be an earthquake.

Always remember how small the smallest part of you is
You are made up of molecules and love
Watch your ego
You need one to survive but do not start letting out enough hot air to fill balloons
When you talk more about yourself than your Creator and where you've come from
you'll begin to give all the glory to your own being
Remember that you are not here to save, but to love

If I had a penny for every time you will be hurt and disappointed
all I would have is two handfuls of coins and a heavier heart
But I will always be here to wrap you in my arms
I cannot save you but I can love you
And I have pointer fingers for a reason,
to point you to our Father
and to big skies and bigger dreams
Somedays you will feel like you are caught in a rainstorm
Always remember that water dries.
But I long for the days when your heart is dancing, just like your eyes
When all you can see is light and joy
When you take this world by your own storm
You are a warrior and a wonder

Puzzle Pieces

"All you need is love"
We sing out from soapbox street corners and family dinner tables
Be kind, be hopeful, but above all else, be loving
We say with our mouths full of clouded truths and misty misinterpretations
How can we know of love when all we're offered is dozens of roses
and movie scripts of first kisses in the rain?

Like a painter with stained hands
You kept Your wounds as signs of Your artwork and of Your great love
Wearing humanity and walking the earth to be nailed on a tree
with enough branches to shade all of Your children with mercy and grace
You paint us rainbows and waterfalls to remind our eyes and our hearts of Your adoration,
Sunsets and sunrises to frame each day with psalms of joy

We all long for someone
We look for traces of their footprints in the crunching autumn leaves
and glances of their reflections in cool waters
But are we willing to make ourselves pebbles in order to build them up to be towers of stone?
To drop our books of self righteousness and our plans of self centeredness
The second we hear their voice call our name?
Would we lay down our life for them just as our Painter painted us an identity in His sacrifice

Too often we forget that "we love because He first loved us"
That He is love
We make ourselves to be the poster-children for hearts held in alabaster jars
Just waiting to shatter at the slightest touch of misguided lust
Falling like puzzle pieces because after all
puzzles are made to be broken and broken again
But we not
We are made in an image of love itself
It is our very nature to be whole despite our decision to turn from being holy
To be lovers and life-breathers and listeners
To mutually inspire and bless one another
as the moon calls the waves into the shore
and the waves provide the moon with a steadiness to make it through the darkness