Love or justice?

After 2 Samuel 18 

Is the focus to be

love, or is the focus

to be justice? Is

this life about grace,

or is this life about

righteousness? It

seems a cop-out

to say, well, both 

matter. They do,

but we want one or 

the other to rule.

Instead, we discover

a tension, a tautness,

and exhaustion to hold

both together,

at the same time,

as if they were one

entity, not two. The mind

boggles, the heart

struggles more. We do

not expect to be called

to this divine tension.

 

Photograph by Jon Tyson via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

“An Address to Miss Phillis Wheatly,” poem by Jupiter Hammon – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

 

Life is a Vapour. Enjoy It – Seth Lewis.

A father's grief

After 2 Samuel 18 

Even after his kingdom

is almost lost, his family

torn apart, his country

sundered in two, his

throne threatened, 

the man grieves 

the loss of the one

who set near-destruction

into motion, the son,

the favored son,

the golden child loved

and followed and

praised by so many,

he grieves what might

have been, he grieves

the tearing of,

the cost to

his own soul.

 

Photograph by Noor Hossain via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Sunday, Feb. 1

 

When Peter Walked the Stormy Sea – poem by Esther Roth.

 

5 Reasons You Need Sabbath Rest – Megan Hill at The Gospel Coalition.

 

Beauty Will Win – Trevin Wax at Story Warren.

 

I Stepped Outside – Melissa Edgington at You Mom Has a Blog.

 

“Day by Day,” song by Stephan Schwartz from Godspell – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Death by oak tree

After 2 Samuel 18 

The son, favored,

natural leader,

ambitious, the son

with his famous mane

of hair, escapes defeat

and gets his famous

mane of hair entangled

in an oak tree. He’s

caught, dangling,

defenseless. His

ambition and rebellion

have been brought

to this moment,

this humiliation

of one’s pride

entangled and 

immobilized, until

it ends with archers

letting arrows fly.

His pride and

his ambition are

buried in a pit,

buried in stones.

 

Photograph by Andrew Shelley via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Apostle! – a sonnet for St. Paul – Malcolm Guite.

 

“The Burden,” poem by Vasile Voiculescu – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

 

“O Zion, Haste,” hymn by Mary Ann Thomson – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

The forest consumes

After 2 Samuel 18 

The slaughter of battle

is great that day,

thousands falling

to sword and lance

and knife. The dead

lie in heaps, wasted

piles of life destroyed.

And yet, in spite of

sword and lance and 

knife, it is the forest

that consumes more

than the battle, 

the forest with

its trees and logs and

pits and ditches and 

streams and rivers,

the forest capturing

warriors and showing

no mercy.

 

Photograph by Sebastian Unrau via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Who Is Rich and Who Is Poor? – Eric McLaughlin at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

Chilling Time – Kelly Keller at Story Warren.

 

It Doesn’t Matter What You Remember – Tim Challies.

 

Where is God’s Love When Life Goes Wrong? – Seth Porch at Desiring God.

 

The Burial of the Faithful – poem by Benjamin Myers at First Things.