A heart of stone

After 1 Samuel 25:1-44 

He hears from her lips

of his narrow escape

from destruction and

death, and the guilty

man quakes, realizing

how closely it came, how

closely his words nearly

brought his destruction. 

His heart dies within him,

paralyzed with fear. Gripped

by paralysis, unable to move,

he turns to stone, dead within

ten days, struck down not

by the man he insulted,

but by the God the man

served. Judgment belongs

to the Lord.

 

Photograph by Toni Reed via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Grief, Memory, and the Hope We Hold in Christ – Staci Eastin.

 

Duty and Delight: C.S. Lewis on Beauty in the Psalms – Michael De Sapio at The Imaginative Conservative.

Turning aside anger

After 1 Samuel 25:1-44 

An arrogant, unthinking word,

spoken without care or thought,

evokes a response of revenge

and destruction, swords belted

and unsheathed, their bearers

determined to cut a swath,

hew down, destroy in anger

and recrimination. And yet

a voice, a single voice,

meets the sword head on,

risking her own life, seeking

forgiveness for one who

didn’t deserve it. Anger

seeking vengeance for arrogance

and insult is set aside. The voice

is heeded, the petition for mercy

granted. And it is God who

answers the sin with judgment.

 

Photograph by Marcus Paulo Prado via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

“Rock of Ages,” hymn by Augustus Toplady – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

 

Why Euthanasia Feels Intuitive – Time Challies.

 

“God, that Madest Earth and Heaven,” hymn by Reginald Heber and Richard Whately – Anthony Esolen at Word and Song/

 

The Other Side of Human Rights – Seth Lewis.

 

Hilda and Caedmon – poem by Malcolm Guite.