If only the swine flu was just a nursery rhyme;
Scare Force One

A Little Piggy in Big Trouble
If only the swine flu was just a nursery rhyme

This little piggy has a fever.
This little piggy just sneezed.
This little piggy feels achy.
This little piggy just wheezed.
And this little piggy went
wheeze-wheeze-wheeze-wheeze
all the way home.

The swine flu epidemic
is hardly child’s play.
Much more than steal your bacon,
it can take your life away.

In Mexico, it’s tragic.
The death toll’s on the rise.
But not just there, it’s everywhere
as one more victim dies.

This news is more than headlines.
The pigs have left the pen.
This flu will claim a whole lot more.
It’s just a case of when.

Pork bellies speak of futures,
but swine flu’s present tense.
Let’s pray it all will soon be past
before it grows immense.

Scare Force One
Flying in the face of reason

They called that big bird “Scare Force One”
that buzzed by Liberty.
It frightened New York City mad.
It was insanity.

A photo-op some claimed it was
for our new President.
But those who saw that jumbo jet
were fooled. They thought it meant

another terrorist attack
like eight short years ago.
Thinking the worst they thought there might
be one more Ground Zero.

It only goes to verify
our nightmares gallop still,
that 911 haunts our land
and for a long time will.

O God, please calm our anxious hearts
that find it hard to trust.
We have to leave the past behind.
For goodness sake, we must!

Lessons from the Miss USA Pageant;
Remembering Columbine Ten Years Later;
Seller Beware!

When Losing Means Winning
Lessons from the Miss USA PageantTwo blondes comprised the final two.North Carolina won,but not before a Q and Athat left the viewers stunned. Miss Tar Heel had a leg upon her California clone.The latter stuck her foot in mouth.You’d think she would have known that what she had to say aboutgay marriage wouldn’t fly.But all the same she spoke her mind,then watched her chances die. Although she didn’t win the crown,she won my deep respectfor verbalizing godly viewsincreasingly suspect. Miss USA will have her reign.Miss California won’t.Do you think she regrets her words?Perhaps you do. I don’t.

Remembering Columbine Ten Years Later
Haunting memories and unrealized dreams

Ten years ago
in a not-so-little town
on the front range of the Rockies,
a room designed for learning
became a tomb for those gunned down.
There were bullets and blood
and a reign of terror
followed by a flood of fear.

Wearing black trench coats
to hide their insecurities,
two boys in men’s bodies
lived out the violence
they’d previously caged in their minds.

It was a nightmare that left a nation
blind with rage and grief.
And for those who lost loved ones,
a day without regrets
and lingering sorrow
remains only a dream.

It’s the kind of tragedy we never dreamed
would strike in our own backyard.
It’s hard to explain how and why,
but we try ’cause we must,
while we simply trust
in a loving God who wept with us
and who remains in complete control.

When bullets fly, children die.
And when hearts break, we feel the ache
and reach out to those left alone
trusting alone in God’s Word.
Words that promise
that no one needs to grieve without hope.

Though the slope of life remains slippery,
we are offered stable footing
as we stand at the foot of a bloodied cross
and peer into an empty grave.

Seller Beware!
Want ads with an unwanted outcome

Sellers’ warning!
Craig’s List killers
lurk online quite out of sight.
If you’re peddling massages,
you’re at risk both day and night.Sex-crazed shoppers(some in med school)scan their screens at classifieds.Is Craig’s List a mute accomplicewhen an advertiser’s died? Want ad victims.Wanted posters.Want to know what this all means?Simply that your well-dressed boyfriendmay not be the man he seems.

A ship captain’s answered prayer;
Post-Easter Ponderings

An Easter to Remember
A ship captain’s answered prayer

Much like Pilate did to Jesus,
pirates on the open sea
sentenced Captain Richard Phillips
to unjust indignity.

He was kidnapped, held for ransom.
Satan’s minions laughed and cheered
while an anxious world prepared for
what might happen as we feared.

Doomed to die inside a lifeboat,
Captain Phillips bravely prayed.
Then the miracle we hoped for…
Life trumped death on Easter Day.

Post-Easter Ponderings
Revisiting a controversial holiday

Christ is risen!

But isn’t evil alive and well as well?
How else can we explain the living Hell
that singes our hope
of sweet dreams for our kids?

A world of Somali pirates,
Sunday school predators,
immigration center snipers
and Wall Street extortionists.

A world of evil, hate and greed
where seeds of corruption
and self-seeking pleasure
are fertilized and germinated
in the soil of an unrestrained society.

Christ is risen!

But is He risen in deeds?
Only to the degree we (His Body)
don work clothes
and work out our salvation
will His resurrection
be made aware
to those who don’t really care
about the holiday just past.

Only as we respond
to the felt needs of the lonely,
the marginalized,
and the needy
will our skeptical world
bury its doubts
and give the Church
a second chance

Christ is risen!

But will we rise to the occasion
to raise His standard of righteousness
in our circle of relationships,
in the public square
and in the oval office?

Will we dare to stand up
among those who have considered us
down for the count?

Will we get up
and surprise the crowd
with a life-giving response
to those who sought to do us in?

Will we show up
in places where the power of God
has been written off
as irrelevant and ineffectual?

Will we turn up
the thermostat of love
in a culture that has defined Christ-followers
as cold, heartless and legalistic?

Christ is risen!

But do we treat Him more like
a rosin bag on a pitcher’s mound
than the Lord of life?

He can’t simply be a quick grab
enabling us to get a firm grip
on our own game
as we proceed to
pitch a new proposal at work,
throw our weight around at church
or wind up in some bases-loaded dilemma.

He insists on being the manager of our lives
who signals from the dugout that
(because of Easter)
it’s a whole new ballgame.
A dugout no longer occupied by a dead body
but by living proof that Resurrection Sunday
can’t just be celebrated once a year.

Easter is a holiday that impacts
every day of every week of every year.
And to anyone who has ears to hear,
it is a day that has risen to new heights.

Christ is risen!
He is risen, indeed!

Good Friday reflections;
The Fellowship of Feet

The Red Sea (Revisited)
Good Friday reflections

It was called “the exodus.”
An exit ramp leading from a dead-end street
to a freeway of sorts.

A nation of indentured brick makers,
bricklayers and pyramid polishers
(finally freed by a pharaoh guilty of infanticide)
packed up and headed east.

The Red Sea parted and the dust flew
as six million sandaled feet forward-marched.
A dry ocean floor became an interstate
to a promised land for which God’s chosen
had waited for four hundred years.

“The exodus” is a timeless story of redemption.
But the events surrounding the Red Sea crossing
of an enclave of Hebrew slaves
does not comprise the whole story.

Yes, the Red Sea was a highway to Sinai.
It was a dry way to freedom.
But it isn’t the only Red Sea
in which we see God at work.

Where is Paul Harvey when you need him?
The rest of the story is dying to be told.
It’s a novel ending begging to be read.
And today is the day to do just that.

As Christ clung to life and stared at death
(hanging from two crossbeams
and between two thieves),
His blood trickled like tributaries
from ruptured arteries and veins.

The leaking red elixir of life
became a river of death
flowing downward from His writhing body
to the foot of His cross.

Because the crimson-stained ground
was soon saturated by the constant stream
(from a spotless sacrificial Lamb
Moses never imagined),
the blood pooled into a sea of red.

In that crimson tide of blood
we find a second Red Sea.
It stands between us
and God’s promised redemption,
forgiveness, freedom, abundant life
and inner peace.

Until we cross this sea of red,
we are slaves to sin and selfish motives.
Until we get across it, 
we are in bondage to self-destructive
behaviors and attitudes.
Yet this bloody barrier
gives us cause for pause.

Just as the people of God
contemplated their options
as they encountered the first sea of red,
so we must determine our course of action.

Will we step forward?
Or will we just stand there?
Will we advance? Or will we retreat?

In all honesty,
there are reasons to resist taking the plunge.
Doubt, pride, disbelief, feelings of unworthiness
and rationalized feelings of contentment
with the old life.

Unlike the original Red Sea crossing,
those who step into the crimson waves
will not find a dry sea bed on which to travel.
No mighty wind and miracle divide this time.

The decision to move forward will mean
total immersion and a process of dyeing.
Those who emerge on the other side of the sea
are red-stained but clothed
in the righteousness of Christ

As such they are certified as citizens
in the land of God’s promise.
A land the Bible calls the Kingdom of God.
 
The Fellowship of Feet
Timeless principles passed down from the Upper RoomBefore the traitor had taken off,
Jesus humbled Himself
before twelve pair of familiar feet.
Feet that had run with delight in His direction
when He had first nodded in theirs.
 Feet that had walked with Himfor the better part of three years
on ‘a long obedience in the same direction.’
 Feet that had remained on a narrow path
far removed from a broader (more popular) road.
 Feet that had stumbled on stonesthrown by critics who questioned
their determined allegiance to a carpenter-turned-rabbi.
 Feet calloused by the number of times
they had squashed their doubts and trudged on in faith.
 Feet that (ironically) still longed
to climb the rungs of self-importance
in hopes of landing on a pedestal of glory.
 Feet smudged by the mud of daily compromise,
smelling of imperfect devotion.
 Feet that would soon flee in fear
when the feet (and hands)
of their Righteous Friend
were nailed to a Roman cross.
 Beautiful feet that (with the exception of one pair)
would in time climb the mountains of the earth,
finding their ultimate worth,
declaring the incredible good news that our God reigns!
 It was these feet the Savior cradled with compassion
as He rinsed and toweled them dry.
 It was this amazing act of undeserved humility
and unforgettable grace
that Jesus commanded His friends to emulate.
 And to that end we lace up our shoes
and follow in His footsteps
in the shadow of His cross.