Wind

                                                Photo by Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash

Taut, alert, sensing before sight,
Howl in canyon,
Hint of power, the outstretched arm,
Deliverance or destruction?
Raising a ragamuffin or
Pulverizing Pharoah?

Barely whispering, fingers on cheek,
Catching unaware,
In Tornado,
Shattering idols, scattering debris,
Internal life thrown out
Into countless cornfields.

Water leaves you wet,

Spoken words leave invisible marks,

Unseen where you’ve been,

Impossible to grasp,

Feeling your slightest movement,

Blowing unabated.

Parched, arid, baking hot,

Cooling breeze,

Street signs screech and sigh,

Rain clouds on the horizon.

Awaiting birth,

Listen for the whisper.

Failure Is Allowed

“And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon they face?”

I met with a group that struggled with brokenness of all kinds. Meeting together we shared struggles, successes and failures. There were always failures. All of us would fight and win, fight and win, then crash. Those were the times we wanted to just give up just lay down, walk away and quit. One leader had this mantra, “It’s okay to fail. The thing is to keep getting back up.”

We all have times like that. “Will this season ever pass? Can we stop this ride? Will we see the sun at last? Or could this be our lot in life?” Mercy Me asks the question and answers it, “Hold fast.” The writer of wisdom tells us that, “a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again…”

This fear and failure seem a constant in our striving to improve. That must be why God tells his people over and over, “Do not fear; for I am with you, Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.” It’s the message He gave to Joshua after his tragic defeat at Ai. It is the word He has for us in our daily struggles and failures. “Get up! Why are you lying on your face like this?” It is no great disaster to fail. The tragedy is to not get up again.