What Oprah taught me about generosity; A Toast to Oprah’s Success

The Giving Game
What Oprah taught me about generosity

You don’t have to be an Oprah
to touch lives the way she does.
You don’t have to have her money or her fame.
You can make someone feel special
giving them the time of day
and by learning how to play the giving game.

Generosity’s a virtue.
It’s a value to embrace
irregardless of how much they say you’re worth.
Be you wealthy or on welfare
you know someone who’s worse off
who has struggled making ends meet since their birth.

Generosity’s a mind set
that affects your fingers’ grasp.
It’s an indicator of who owns your heart.
It directs your eyes to focus
on a person you can bless
with some unexpected resource you impart.

A Toast to Oprah’s Success
Winfrey’s windfall is more than meets the eye

The spectrum of her brilliant career
began with “The Color Purple”
(and she has been seeing green ever since).
In a direct reversal of Harpo’s wordless ways,
Oprah made her mark with non-stop talk.

For twenty-five years she has hosted (and roasted)
the rich and the famous, the needy and deserving,
the rough and tumble and those who have stumbled
and some who have fallen from grace.

Winfrey’s windfall
has been nothing short of phenomenal.
In the Windy City (and beyond),
the gales of success
sure have carried her far
while the scales waiting nearby
have reminded her
of the ups and downs
of hopes and dreams
(and reality).

But in spite of her weight,
Oprah has pounded her peers
year after year in the ratings game.
This larger-than-life mogul
has tasted the sweetness of making it big.

So a tip of the hat and hoist of the glass
is a most fitting tribute to “O”
as she gives up her gig
and makes cable her home.
Will she make a return?
Who’s to know?

* Here is a link to a written transcript of Oprah’s comments on her final show broadcast this week.

http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/The-Oprah-Winfrey-Show-Finale_1/1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5Y9PrQirvA

The Mississippi’s rage and redemption; A Church’s Open Closet

Old Man River
The Mississippi’s rage and redemption

There’s a cost to saving cities
that someone is forced to pay
although the price of saving them is high.
It’s a picture of redemption
where salvation’s far from cheap
and the goal of saving lives
means dreams must die.

The rage of Old Man River
(like the wrath of Holy God)
is unstoppable and cannot be ignored.
It, by nature, is demanded
and it seems that doom is sure.
But, thank God, salvation finds an open door.

Yes, those spillways that were opened
(and what then was sacrificed)
were a flood of grace and mercy in disguise.
Like the suffering of Jesus
(who absorbed God’s righteous wrath),
what seemed foolish will one day confound the wise.

A Church’s Open Closet
The PCUSA opens the door to the ordination of gays

Getting drunk or viewing porn
is labeled sin. It’s not the norm.
And neither is abusing drugs
or robbing widows blind.

We know it’s wrong to cheat your mate
or in your heart to harbor hate.
To lie or even over-eat
God doesn’t countenance.

The ones He calls to serve His flock
are blemished lambs, but they don’t balk
about the need to turn from sin
(repenting of their past).

It’s only when we own our sin
(confessing it) that we begin
to claim God’s grace and die to self
denying our desires.

Yet homosexuality
is viewed completely differently
within the PCUSA
and other mainline groups.

“Don’t turn from it,” they’re prone to say.
“God thinks it’s fine. He made you gay.
And since He did, you have the right
to lead His church and serve.

“Forget the fact God’s Word is clear
about behavior viewed as queer.
It’s time we claim that times have changed
and rewrite holy writ.”

I wonder what the Lord will say
when they before Him stand one day
and make their case why tolerance
has trumped His timeless truth.

It takes will and grace to keep marital promises

The Terminator’s marriage
has imploded (so it seems).
It is terminated! Over!
It’s a shattered lifeless dream.

Still I hope that what seems broken
is at worst a hairline crack
that will be repaired when Arnold says,
“Maria, I’ll be back!”

Marriage takes a bodybuilder.
One who knows how to be strong,
who can bench-press heavy burdens
yet release forgiven wrongs.

Marriage takes a politician
who makes promises for change
and then implements what’s needed
to improve what’s bad (or strange).

Marriage takes two different viewpoints
seeing life from left and right
so to focus on what matters
when you lack sufficient light.

Marriage takes the will to work at
what derails you from the track
and the grace to say each morning,
“Come this evening, I’ll be back!”