Blog Archives - The Commonplace Journal

Shot

2/26/2021

Here I lie inside my grave,
My death iatrogenic,
Induced by that new shot I got
Down at the drive-through clinic.

They told me it was safe
And would save me from disease,
Though they had no data for those with
My comorbidities.

They claimed it was effective
And would help me to survive
By a scale of ninety-five percent,
But I was in the five.

They said "safe and effective,"
But as you know from me,
"Safe" is much too high a risk
To gain immunity.

So before you take that shot
Of nucleic acid soup,
You might want to retain your spot
In the placebo group.

Let There Be...

2/22/2021

And God said, “Let there be…”
--Genesis 1:3

Within the mist that rose above the sea,
The Spirit hovered over what would be;
The chaos taking form in every phrase
Of "Let there be..." to make and order days;

But long before the earth was formless, void,
God was at work with other words employed
To call, to choose two people as his own,
Into whose hearts His own Word would be sown

So deeply they would be as one to will
And live and move and have their beings stilled
By that same God who called them very good
On their first day when all was as it should.

So they would take a vow for all their life
To be Imago Dei, man and wife.
And though their world is wracked and wrecked by sin,
He made a promise: "I will come again!"

I love you, Wife, and as we wait and groan
Within our Spirits, we are not alone:
We bear the Love of Christ, for it is He,
The Image of our God, who visibly

Has come to take the chaos we endure
From sin and world and Satan, making sure
That we in ordered Heaven will be free
As He continues speaking, "Let there be..."

Snake

2/15/2021

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.”
--Genesis 3:1-4 (ESV)

The serpentining snake slithers unseen,
Seeking to strike against the still serenity
Of shalom that silently settles like mist
At each dawn and dusk in Eden;
Soon sin will sink its sanguinary fangs
Beneath the surface of our skin,
And on that day we will surely die.

Fruit II

2/12/2021

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
--John 12:24

Put to death
Your flesh so that
The fruit of
Christ is grown;
The fruit is
Only borne after
The seed is dead
And sown.

Go

2/10/2021

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”
--Genesis 12:1 (ESV)

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
--Hebrews 11:8 (ESV)

But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.
--John 3:21 (NKJV)

Lord,
Give me grace to go,
Like Abraham to leave,
That I might do the truth
And not merely “believe,”
Amen.

Decomposition III

2/5/2021

“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,
    and the heavens are the work of your hands;
they will perish, but you remain;
    they will all wear out like a garment,
like a robe you will roll them up,
    like a garment they will be changed.
But you are the same,
    and your years will have no end.”
--Hebrews 1:10-12 ESV

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
--Revelation 21:1 ESV

This world is fragile in its form, for it is interspersed
With what did not ever belong: decomposition's curse.
The world is fragile in its form; with garments made from hide,
We've hid in shadows worn by dark to make the Light subside.
The world is fragile in its form, like garments ragged, ripped;
It will be rolled up as a cloak and from the body stripped.
The world is fragile but will find a firm regality,
Redressed to wear its royal robes unto eternity.
The world is fragile but will find fragility its past,
When Light will come to clothe the world in garments that will last.

To My Wife

2/2/2021

To you, my love, my wife, my bride, I write
With all my heart that you may know what’s real
Amidst the chaos—though you may not feel
Like truth prevails within the shadowed night.
My vow to you, I hope it shines a light
To God’s own vow that He has come to heal
And mend your heart and then to you reveal
A peace that He will soon come set aright
The fragile form of this world in what waits
To be revealed; like Heaven’s solid grass,
So too will Love grow truer through the gates
And make our bodies bend the bladed glass.
But now, we love and heal from weak estates
Awaiting transformation’s trumpet blast.

Cardinal Schonborn on abortion

2/1/2021

Cardinal Schonborn writes:

What is there in creation more sublime, more precious, than a new human child? what is in greater danger, nowadays, than an unborn child? It is hard to understand how one's commitment to environmental protection is not turned as a priority to protecting children. For nothing demands our respect for creation more than care for its most precious possession: the child that has been vouchsafed as a gift to this world in order to know it, respect it, and cultivate it.

Chance or Purpose?: Creation, Evolution, and a Rational Faith. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press. 2007, p. 160.