What can we learn about life from two noteworthy deaths?;
Longing for Grace

By George, John Paul is ringed by those
who want to hold his hand.
The world now grieves for one who claimed
to be God’s chosen man.

Hey Jude, he knew your words by heart.
The Psalms and Gospels too.
He prayed God’s Word when feeling well
and when he had the flu.

When he found himself in times of trouble,
he heard Mary speak.
His was a long and winding road.
He worked eight days a week.

Imagine there’s no Heaven? Hell,
he couldn’t if he tried.
This shepherd of the Roman flock
could see pearled gates spread wide.

While some believed his God a fool
perched somewhere on a hill,
the Pontiff blanketed them with love
to warm their faithless chill.

T’was something in the way he moved
here, there and everywhere
that mirrored Christ and offered grace
to those without a prayer.

It seems like only yesterday
the Cardinals crowned him Pope.
From Penny Lane to Abbey Road,
his homilies brought hope.

But now, by George, John Paul is ringed
by those who grieve his loss.
And yet their grief will turn to joy
because of Jesus’ cross. 

Longing for Grace
Faith lessons for who will one day die
The monarch of Monaco died without Grace.
That plight is as sad as a flowerless vase.
The Pope left for Heaven without knowing peace.
In spite of his sermons our wars have increased.

Without what we long for we’re really alone.
Just ask one who’s homeless or one on a throne.
The need that we’re born with is really the same.
We enter the world stained by guilt and by shame.

It’s not having money that makes us feel whole.
It’s knowing we’re loved way down deep in our soul.
It’s letting God grace us by cleansing our sin
and giving us meaning and purpose within.

It’s one thing to sorrow for those passed away.
But don’t die without grace God offers today.

“For it’s by grace that we experience God’s unconditional love and acceptance. A grace that embraces us when we reach out toward it with arms of faith. And come to think of it, even our ability to reach to receive God’s grace is something he makes possible. One thing I know for sure, our good works never are quite good enough. And even when they seem like they are, they cause us to boast about our goodness. And when we do that we’re just as bad off as when we started.” (a paraphrase of Ephesians 2:8-9)

Lamenting the high cost of filling up

I get gas and I feel awful.
Real discomfort. Chronic ouch.
And that hurt within in my wallet
makes me grumpy as a grouch.

I feel pain as I stand pumping
with that nozzle in my hand.
I spend more than half a hundred
just to fill my minivan.

There’s a knot within my stomach
and an ache within my head.
I’m a hostage to the Saudis
every time my car gets fed.

Spinning numbers leave me dizzy.
Every time they stop, I lose.
It’s just like the slots in Vegas.
It’s a case of gas pain blues.

Easter Hope Amid the Headlines

Scott Peterson is Not Scott Free
But Jesus Died So He One Day Might Be

Dead man walking.
Scott’s not talking.
Neither are his wife and son.
They got death
before his sentence.
Lives were lost, but justice won.

From his prison
where he’s livin’
Scott can see the very bay
where he dumped
that precious cargo
on that cold December day.

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy
on this man we love to hate.
Every day
he’ll die by inches
till a future lethal date.

From Your cross You
had a clear view
of that bay where sin can hide.
You saw all our deadly motives,
greed and lust and hate and pride.

And Your vision
of derision
wasn’t just a casual glance.
What You focused on You shouldered
in atonement’s bloody dance.

We’re forgiven,
men and women.
Though once guilty, we’re scott free.
But the good news of Good Friday
isn’t just for you and me.

So I’m sayin’
let’s be prayin’
men like Scott awaiting death
will have claimed the life Christ offers
when they draw their final breath.

Mother Liberty is Weeping
Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor and Your Brain-damaged

They disengaged her breathing tube
and want Terri to die
while in a harbor Mother stands
and cannot help but cry.

She holds a torch above her head.
It lights her tear-stained face.
Her flame burns brightly beaconing
the values we embrace.

We treasure life and liberty
and welcome those who seek
to celebrate the worth of all,
the strong, impaired and weak.

Our country claims that freedom is
for everyone who breathes
including those as yet unborn
those unnamed hes and shes.

The right to live is God-ordained
no matter what some say.
But somewhere somehow black and white
have blurred to godless gray.

Who pulled the tube and said “Enough?”
I know it wasn’t God.
And so I weep with Liberty
though some may call me odd.

A Purpose Driven Death (and Life)
Why Good Friday Depends on Great Sunday

His was a purpose driven life.
He had no wealth. He had no wife.
He didn’t write a must-read book.
He lacked a photogenic look.
Compared with how we judge success,
he didn’t score too high.

And though he didn’t know much fame,
this man stayed true to why he came.
He hung with those considered lost
and then he hung upon a cross.
Because mankind is evil-prone,
this kind man chose to die.

Still Jesus’ aim was not fulfilled
when Friday came and he was killed.
To prove his love can make us new,
he had a bit more work to do.
His purpose driven life would fail
if Death had the last word.

But there was much more to be said
by one who spoke although quite dead.
And he whose words first birthed the world
escaped the grave, its clothes unfurled,
to show that what he’d come to do
was definitely done.

What Simon says and Michael doesn’t

Beware of What Simon Says
Life lessons in self-esteem from the American Idol craze.

Paula and Randy are candid (yet kind).
But American Idol wanna-bees
are often stung by the waspy words
that Simon says.
He’s mean-spirited. He’s heartless.
And furthermore, he’s often wrong.
But he’s not alone.
When you try your hardest,
you too have critics
who will attempt to steal your joy
and rob you of your self-esteem.
They will undermine your dreams
if you let them.
But as Carole King reminded us
back when we idolized her,
“Don’t you let them!”
Remember, you’ve got a Friend
Who loves you more than you know
and loves you as you are.
In the end, it’s not your critics who count.
It’s a panel of One
from Whom your gifts have come.

Michael’s Drumline
You’ve never heard Tom-Toms like this.

You could call it Michael’s Drumline
near a ranch named Neverland.
where the legal Tom-Toms square-off
making noise.
There is Sneddon and there’s Mesereau
aware of Jackson’s jazz
and the trap set for
unknowing little boys.

It’s a Tom-Tom competition
quite complete with many snares.
These are rhythms you will never
hear again.
There are prosecution rimshots
and the roll of Mike’s defense
as the lawyers do their best to
claim a win.