brave love.

You are an unflinching affection.

I am an outcome,
and the object.

Let there be...
Without confine or concern;
without tyranny or precaution.

With joy.

Setting aside pretense;
I've come to delight in blood.


Congealed light, washed along my eyelids,
spilling over remorse;
running through my veins.

For the joy set before You, there is joy fixed within me.
Flesh wed with spirit;
one now
and forever.

What I once imagined to plague your heart,
I've realized only served its role in Your acclaim.

ALL things new.
ALL, together for the good.
ALL live, and move, and have their being.

You are the bravest heart;
the truest love.

Let there be light; let there be love.
You are an unflinching affection.

You are brave love.

the coming.

I will keep my eyes open.

When the ground trembles and the water rises,

I will refuse to miss the brilliant coming.

Watch.

Watch and pray,

You who call on the Lord.

Though an army encamp against me,

though war may rise against me,

in this I will be confident.

I look to the hills;

to the horizon,

where my hope comes from.

Behold, beloved...

longing, He rides the sunset.

I will keep my eyes open,

because therein is this joy of mine fulfilled.

I will decrease, You will increase...

therein I am satisfied.

I will keep my eyes open, 

to behold the One I hope in.

I will make for you a resting place.

I will keep my eyes open.

the unique business of serving the flame that taunts your hand to quench it

At the brittle edge of your reality, I breathe in deeply.

You are far from me, 

but I know you like you are me.

Resilient.  Conspicuous. 

You’d give yourself to contrast before your intended purpose.

Fame belongs to the fire who burns alone in the dark.

Dancing violently; competing with your own shadow.

movement declaring independence a thousand words could not contend with...

all without regard for the wick you’re bound to;

without acknowledgement...

...that you are a warmth that belongs to a source,

and you serve a purpose that has little to do with that shadow.

How easily you forget the way your beauty illuminates a room.

How quickly you’re drawn away by a darkness rendered in the light you’ve become.

You are a fire on my skin, just like you are on that wick.

Your nature does not change;

Your aftermath does not concern you...

...yet.

But I am a fabric that you have not yet set fire;

licking my flesh to tire its resolve.

Defending yourself, you’ve made way for your performance,

but forfeited the beauty of just light;

just existence.

Striving to free your unmanageable form,

you’d burn down this room if it’d prove your point.

You are unprecedented potential; 

made to do more than flicker.

But the splendor of your longing has diminished you in its grandeur;

beautiful fire, fighting to have value.

I would not put you out, no matter how you taunt my flesh.

No matter how you believe it is the inevitable end.

You matter to me...more than you know.

I do not remain here because I have seen you;

but because it is by you that I’ve seen everything else.

It is by you..in you, flame I uphold, 

that I see even myself.

You are my light in my darkness,

not a shadow maker.

You’re a comfort in my silence,

you do more than fight for your life.

And to think...just in your being.

Not in your doing.

This is a unique business, serving you;

and hold you I will,

until you see what you are.

flesh and dust.

It has been so long...
and we've come so far together.

In the roaring cement waterfall,
my words drift on forgotten winds.

But You haven't forgotten a thing, have You?

The rise and fall of kingdoms;
war and reign; loss and victory.
Like testimony of grandeur long past,
I've stood with You atop the rubble of their walls.

Eyes closed in willed establishment against a river of remembrance...

In the darkness behind them, I do remember.
I'll always remember.

Oh how this flesh would love to affirm the feared abandoment,
and give voice to its cogency as my due verdict.

It's all the same stuff, flesh and dust.

I can hardly tell the difference between flesh clothing the hand extended
toward You and the cavernous fractures in the arid desert floor that meets my knees.

I am withered,
but surely not alone.

It's the memory that escapes from my clenched eyelids to
moisten the earth it falls to,
that makes a liar of this carnal frame...

You will neither leave me, nor forsake me.

You know me.
You hear me.
You have not forgotten a thing.

I feel You, like skin, enclosing what could not clothe itself.

I feel the blood again...
heartbeat...after heartbeat...

You make all things new.

Hello, old friend. Well done, good and faithful...
My heart breaks to know You're still with me.

It has been so long, and we've been so far.

But it would seem I've finally grasped the distance.
I've finally arrived at together.

Thank You for together.
I have, and will, love You back.

broken; made whole.

If here is the easiest place, I want to be alive somewhere else;

beyond the company of its memory.

Here is without you.

And you are a part now.

The steady rhythm hidden in my chest listens for your voice;

rising at the timbre, slowing in the absence.

I wonder often if you know that you still make me nervous.

What a brilliant enchantment; 

heart recklessly infatuated, stomach dancing the anticipation...

hand searching for yours.

Who am I?

That you would choose me; let me try to love you.

Only one other ever afforded me the grace...

but then again, He affords it to all who'd have it.

But you...

you chose one. 

Responded. 

To one.

You let me be the only...

It's all I ever wanted.

If here is without you, it is not the easiest place.

No one promised easy.

Here is for you. 

Here is about then. 

Here is for always.

Steady rhythm, hidden in my chest..

rising quickly, falling with measure.

It felt you, and set awry its course...

rising quickly, falling in love.

Now the blood gets where it needs to.

thank you.

forever...thank you.

broken; made whole.

undiscovered. [for my sisters]

There is an ache inside of me that is bigger than I am.
I have only to burst at the seams; to relieve the pressure.
Resolution and water bleed from my eyes together.

Gratitude. Longing that you would have what you deserve.
For now, a heart rent and the warmth on my face will have to be voice enough.

They may not, but I know you.

Simple compassion and courage burn in your veins;
hearts formed in fire, injustice long-suffered.
Selflessness is lived before it's ever learned.
Let alone given away.

I remember...
every turning of face toward forgiveness;
every joy made from ashes;
every rejection rendered helpless;
every way you chose to love...

I remember.

Hidden between years and familiarity,
you have yet to be discovered.
Time would do away with the wonder;
Oh, closeted beauty...do not forget.

I know how He fights for you.
I know how He feels what you do.
I know Him.
I know He has not lost hope.

There is too much still for you,
too much still within you.
Expression falls short now.

Maybe its better...I don't know what longing I hurt for, exactly.
But I know that I will pour myself out,
fill the heart of heaven with words,
until you have what you're worth..

until you know how it is you are loved.
Until you know how it is you deserve to always be..
Until you've believed that you are undiscovered.

weary land.

The drought has lingered longer than expected.
And the problem with the patterns of weather is their only consistency being in their unpredictable nature.

Gathering stores for the desert in the middle of it is a much harder process than if I'd chosen oil when much abounded.

But in the barrenness, there is a slow climbing anticipation;
a hope that sustains the validity and position of its self-existent truth.

You are with me.

Four very distinct and separate words,
each legitimized by the first.
Nothing has been lost. Everything has to be found.
All the power of every season is in who You are in the midst of it.

Be rain here.
Be joy here.
Be life here.
Be hope...oh God, be my hope.

The dampened corners of my eyes are the only oasis this heart has known;
the abstract water and comfort in a dry and weary land.

You will lead me...You always lead me.