In our spiritual community at First Congregational Church Boulder, UCC some of our members are reading a small book called, The Art of Being a Healing Presence. Those of us reading it, are part of a small group of people who are choosing to heed the call to embody a healing presence with community members who are open to our invitation. Over the months that we’ve been meeting, my heart has increasingly found joy in our time together encouraging each other as we discover the gift of Visitation together. I wrote the following poem to/for them to both express appreciation for their gifting of themselves and to remind them that when we are being present, every moment counts.
The Visitation It was only for a moment
It was here and it was gone
But when they think of the Visitation
The Presence lingers on
Breaking into Time-space
Eternity in half an hour
When two or more gather here
We’ve invited in the Power
Never underestimate,
What a moment can unfold
A single earthly encounter
A lasting balm for the soul
You were called to bring the Presence.
Being is what you do.
Giving form to the Love,
That preceded me and you
I am grateful that after more than a 4 year journey, Take This Life has finally made its way out into the world. It has been a blessing to me. I hope it blesses everyone it comes in contact with because you are made to shine. #makeitlight
To see this song on other online platforms click here.
I’m using Take This Life to create a #makeitlight challenge to highlight good being done in the world. If you happen to decide to share it online, can you use the #makeitlight tag?
(When you shine your Light it isn’t just for you. It’s for everybody else that’s been watching what you do.)
Take this life Make it right Take this life Make it Light To see…
You ever had those thoughts that wouldn’t go away? They’re runnin’ though your mind like every single day. Wake up in the mornin’ Get on your knees and pray Don’t believe it works But you do it anyway That’s what it’s like when you feelin’ hopeless Lookin’ at your life and you’ve got no focus You say, “It gets better.” Swear to God you know this But you caught up in the mix Don’t where your flow is This is the way of the American dream We think we see clearly But it isn’t what it seems Addicted to consumption So we livin’ like we fiends Only find meaning When we get a bunch of things Sooo…
Take this life Make it right Take this life Make it Light To see…
You know the Way That’s what they say That’s why I pray To shine like the Day Sooo…
Take this life Make it right Take this life Make it Light To see…
Here’s a little something I’m getting off my chest It’s been a long time Since last I confessed I denied you Thinking I’d get the rest But life without you Is a life that’s a mess
The best of me Is messin’ with the rest of me It’s testin’ me At least until I get to see I’m blessed to be Livin’ with you next to me ‘Cause life within you Is for X to see You see
They say you know the Way I’m inclined to believe it Though never in my life Have I seen one to achieve it You told us how to do it I’ll be shocked If we gon’ heed it Then we looking all surprised By the fact that we defeated Soo…
Take this life Make it right Take this life Make it Light To see
You know the Way That’s what they say That’s why I pray To shine like the Day Sooo…
Take this life Make it right Take this life Make it Light To see…
When you shine your light It isn’t just for you It’s for everybody else That’s been watchin’ what you do You can talk that talk But the walk shows what is true Are you a hypocrite Or the proud and the few? That’s the kind of question I ask myself daily Trying to get back to my roots As if my name was Alex Haley You don’t like my style But never will you play me ‘Cause I’m gon’ shine my light Till the day that they take me
You say I know the way ‘Cause if you do, I’m supposed to I’m glad you chose me Even when I hadn’t chose you The world is out of order And everybody knows it How’s a nation under you When all you are, it opposes If they gon’ be that Pharaoh Then I’m gon’ be that Moses They don’t want to see us shine ‘Cause when we do it exposes So I’m gon’ keep speaking Til everybody knows this It’s when we turn to you That we see where the flow is
You know the Way That’s what they say That’s why I pray To shine like the Day Sooo…
Take this life Make it right Take this life Make it Light To see…
Matthew 5:15
No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.
Below is the original performance of the song that I did as a pastor.
Below is my final sermon as a pastor where in my farewell, I remind the community that, as the song Take This Life says, “YOU KNOW THE WAY”. The message ends with Asha singing, Change Gonna Come by Sam Cooke.
Into Your hands I commit my spirit
Because I won’t endure this lie
This prison system cannot be True
Built on the illusion that we must die
Death’s nothing more or less than a doorway
Or when a movie changes scenes
Different characters embody roles
But there’s just One Dreamer of these dreams
Yet somehow we’ve conceived to deny this
Even though it makes no sense
In the beginning there was always One
And there only has been ever since.
I struggle everyday to express this
To live wholly in Your call
Knowing that I’m denying One
If I can’t see You in All
This is the fruit of religious life
Bonding body and mind to soul
Forsaking the separate self that never was
And abandoning false control
This is when the journey ends
We’ve found the only thing worth finding
And teaching each other is no longer done
We simply trust in Your reminding
This is what I live this Life for
Every other way must be undone
My spirit in the hands of the All in All
Completes what never had begun
There is a path that all flesh must take
We’ve always known this from the start
It’s the very awareness of this fact
That reveals the nature of our heart
For the spirit of immortality
Wrestles with the ways of form
Tempting us with corporeality
As if it were the norm
There are hearts that surrender to this way
As long as we are here
While other hearts struggle with time itself
Certain that eternity is near
The struggling heart will not surrender
It crams eternity into space
Living life with all it has
And in its wake leaves waves of grace
It knows the way that flesh must go
But it and flesh are not the same
And on that day when the two must part
It receives that which is its to gain
The poem above was written by request for the Rev. Bruce MacKenzie Pastor Emeritus of the church I serve in Boulder, CO. “The way of all flesh” was a saying Bruce loved to say when referring to anything that is temporary in this world. At one visit I had with him before his passing he said to me, “Soon I will be going the way of all flesh, but you and I know that is nothing to be concerned with. So no tears.” I said to him, “Well we teach that Jesus wept when Lazarus died and he was just about to resurrect him, so I cry when you leave.” He laughed at that and changed the subject. Bruce’s body might have gone the way of all flesh. But though the outer man is beyond our seeing, the inner man remains eternally abiding.
There’s a world we all are living in
But not everyone can see
A World of eternal spaciousness
Where everyone is free
Inside that world is another world
Where people choose to live a lie
“Special people”claim to know the Truth
And teach the “forgetting” we can die
Some of those people know the Truth
And twist it tight for so called gain
Telling us that we can’t get along
And that the Other causes pain
Their clarion call is “SAVE YOURSELF”
So that’s what many of us try to do
We can’t see it’s just a cattle call
And all they want to hear is “MOOOO”
They have no purpose if we’re not scared
“Can’t you see that there’s a threat?”
They know that we will sell our souls
Only as long as we’re fearing death
They tell you they’re here to protect us
That’s the job for which they’re paid
In exchange you can focus on other things
But you lose consciousness in the trade
The world of lies that we think is real
Does not objectively exist
Like a picture of a sumptuous meal
On which no one can subsist
Meanwhile in the eternal world
One is the Truth that always reigns “divided houses” do not exist
And there is no loss or gain
No one’s seeking for the joy in life
For Joy is the Cause of Life itself
And value isn’t used as we use it here
Since everything springs from eternal wealth
There also is never a use for Welcome
Because there’s never a time that we aren’t here
We can tell ourselves that we’ve gone away
But to Truth we’ve never disappeared
Like children with their hands on eyes
Who think they’re unseen when they can’t see
Here we can choose to chain ourselves
But that doesn’t make us less than free
We’re only bound by the limits that we project
Our own judgments become our jail
But our sentence is never for our entire life
Because the Truth always prevails
The poem above was written by request for the Rev. Bruce MacKenzie Pastor Emeritus of the church I serve in Boulder, CO. “The way of all flesh” was a saying Bruce loved to say when referring to anything that is temporary in this world. At one visit I had with him before his passing he said to me, “Soon I will be going the way of all flesh, but you and I know that is nothing to be concerned with. So no tears.” I said to him, “Well we teach that Jesus wept when Lazarus died and he was just about to resurrect him, so I cry when you leave.” He laughed at that and changed the subject. Bruce’s body might have gone the way of all flesh. But though the outer man is beyond our seeing, the inner man remains eternally abiding.
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