Retro Poem #17: Nothing Words

That was a nothing voice

That spoke in a nothing way

When it spoke to me about holiness.

They were nothing words 

Because I did not believe

I did not believe it was possible 

To live the kind of life

They proclaimed.

I had tried and failed.

I did not believe.

My experience taught me otherwise.

That was a nothing voice

That spoke in a nothing way

Because I did not believe.

I closed my ears

And embittered my heart

When they spoke in nothing words

A doctrine of holiness.

I did not believe.

My experience taught me otherwise.

But God will prove his person

To those who seek his face.

In his something way,

He found a path around 

My nothing walls

And slowly peeked His 

Holy light into my heart

And showed me His holy face.

In his something way,

He has removed my bitterness

And replaced it with passion,

Longing to be holy

Because of my holy God,

Who is Holy Love.

I stand longing yet resting,

Resting in what I have in Christ,

Who I have in Christ.

He in me, and I in him,

He is my life, my peace, my holiness.

God, in his something way,

Has moved me from bitterness, 

     to longing, to rest.

We serve a something God

Who dissolves our nothing walls

If we seek his face.

Written in 1998

Israel and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Time - Exodus 6

(This is a sermon by Matt Banner, our assistant pastor.)

    One of the most famous children’s books is also one that I enjoy.  It is called Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, by Judith Viorst (Atheneum Books for Young Readers; Spl Ltd edition (September 22, 2009).  In it, it tells the story of Alexander, how everything goes wrong for him.  It starts out like this:

    “I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there’s gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day…..I think I’ll move to Australia.”

    And things just get worse for poor Alexander.

• At breakfast, his 2 brothers, Anthony and Nick, get prizes in their cereal.  He just gets cereal.
• On the way to school, he has to sit in the middle of the car.
• At school, his teacher doesn’t like his drawing of an invisible castle.
• He sings too loud.
• He left out the number 16 when counting (who needs 16 anyway)
• His best friend leaves him to become his third best friend.