Monthly Archives: April 2015

Double Dutching

28 Tuesday Apr 2015

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Double Dutch Jump Rope

Back in the day, we used to sing the following jump rope rhyme while playing Double Dutch:

MISS MARY MACK, Mack, Mack
All dressed in black, black, black
With silver buttons, buttons, buttons
All down her back, back, back
She asked her mother, mother, mother
For fifty cents, cents, cents
To see the elephant, elephant, elephant
Jump the fence, fence, fence.
They jumped so high, high, high
They touched the sky, sky, sky
And didn’t come back, back, back
Till the fourth of July, July, July

I was feeling a bit nostalgic when I composed both “Under Street Lamp” and “Double Dutching.” Below is “Double Dutching”—another poem in honor of National Poetry Month (April 2015):

 


Double Dutch
            Jump rope
                       Sidewalk game;
                               Inner city youths’ claim to fame.
                     Turners set beat – 1, 2; 1, 2—
Singing rhymes in time
                             As Jumper enters ropes,
                                                         Dope on a dime turns:
                   Fancy foot stepping,
Chiming in,
        Uninterrupted versifying;
                                  Double dutching happy-go-lucky;
                                                  Picture-perfect work-study,
                       ‘Til Jumper exits out!

                                                                                                    ~ September 2014

 

By yourself you’re unprotected.
With a friend you can face the worst.
Can you round up a third?
A three-stranded rope isn’t easily snapped. ~ Ecclesiastes 4:12, MSG

Under Street Lamp: A Poem in Honor of National Poetry Month

26 Sunday Apr 2015

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Under the Street Lamp

The Lord Almighty says, ‘I am greatly concerned—yes, furiously angry—because of all that Jerusalem’s enemies have done to her. Now I am going to return to my land, and I, myself, will live within Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem shall be called ‘The Faithful City,’ and ‘The Holy Mountain,’ and ‘The Mountain of the Lord Almighty.’

The Lord Almighty declares that Jerusalem will have peace and prosperity so long that there will once again be aged men and women hobbling through her streets on canes, and the streets will be filled with boys and girls at play. ~ Zechariah 8:2-5, TLB

 

 

I have posted several poems this month—National Poetry Month (April 2015). However, I failed to mention that fact in those postings. Since I was taught that it is better to be late than never, the following poem is posted in honor of National Poetry Month 2015.

 

Dusk sneaks up on us
Playing in middle of street;
Makes flowing four-eyes under eyebrows,
Cats-eyes on rears
Sluggish sundown traffic –
Swerving to the right or left –
Misses us.

Kickball, Dodgeball, Soccer,
Red Light – Green Light;
Take One Giant Step . . . May I?:
Nightly refusals to shift from
Coveted spots always last,
Until either a win or loss
Curbs us.

Just like clockwork,
Nocturnal frolicking
Habitually under street lamp
Converts to catching Lightning Bugs,
Harmonizing Doo-Wop,
Shooting the breeze . . .
Before parents’ arresting tones
Summon us.

 

~ September 2014

A Collage of Some Illustrated Haikus

26 Sunday Apr 2015

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Illustrated Haikus Collage

And the Lord said to me, ‘Write my answer on a billboard, large and clear, so that anyone can read it at a glance and rush to tell the others. But these things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, do not despair, for these things will surely come to pass. Just be patient! They will not be overdue a single day!’ ~ Habakkuk 2:2-3, TLB

 

From top Left to bottom Right, here are the haikus in the collage’s graphics:

1
A God-incidence –
powerfully spoken Word:
moving mountain Faith.

2
Deployment Order:
to action-heavy trenches –
Faith’s best breeding grounds.

3
A helps ministry:
The Kingdom way of living –
saints being Christ-like.

4
Faithful follower:
a fruit-producing manner –
Spirit discipled.

5
Life throws a curveball:
Master imparts discernment –
deduced deception.

6
Jesus is coming
back for fervent holy saints –
the rapture ready.

7
Wisdom is defined:
erring again and again,
only less and less.

8
Unkindest Winter:
not one love seedling endured –
blossomless springtime.

9
Spiritual growth –
progressively perfected:
well-seasoned faith walk.

10
THE Agápe (love):
going to extremes to help –
hands-on affections.

11
A fueled revival –
the Holy Spirit fire
purified rebirth.

12
Out of business signs:
Rapture closes prayer houses –
scattered goats bleating.

 

Note: Haikus #3 and #9 are the only haikus in this blog entry that were not published in my book – Perfect Peace (2015).

Spiritually Fat Souls

22 Wednesday Apr 2015

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Nadine with Her Foshan University's Education College English Students; 2005

 

Living in Asia taught me valuable lessons that I thought I already knew very well. From the most economically impoverished, physically hungry and physically thirsty people I have ever known, I witnessed and received the God-kind of genuine love and fellowship that I never had witnessed or received from my financially better-off American brothers and sisters in Christ. These poverty-stricken individuals I fellowshipped with were blessed with spiritually fat souls! That’s why they freely shared their insufficient measures of food, drink and housing with me. More important, they also freely shared their precious time and their treasured spiritual riches.

My soul benefited greatly from the lessons their generous hospitality taught me. They showed me how deeply concerned they were about their own soul’s daily need to eat spiritual food and drink spiritual water. None was too concerned about eating daily portions of homegrown or money-bought provisions, which only could keep their physical bodies from wasting away.

In truth, no amount of money could buy the gift that satisfies our thirsty and hungry souls. That gift (eternal life—a close, intimate, personal relationship with God) is so important it is priceless! That’s why Isaiah prophesies that only the Messiah (Christ Jesus) can offer God’s priceless eternal life gift for free (Isa. 55:1). Centuries later, Jesus Christ fulfills this prophecy. His death on the Cross paid in full the high price of our eternal life gift.

Lastly, my Asian brothers and sisters showed me how being diligent about our spiritual life is the price we pay for our FREE daily portions of Living Bread and Living Water—the spiritual food and water we need to fatten up (prosper) our souls. We purchase these daily portions with our sincerest pursuit of forgiveness for our sins, our faithful acceptance of the finish work Jesus Christ fulfilled on the Cross, and our devoted hunger and thirst for God’s holiness and righteousness. This diligence is how we make our souls spiritually fat. It works as long as we never let spiritual sluggishness (mere religious desires) keep us from daily renewing our minds.

Is your soul wasting away? Is your soul getting fat off of Jesus Christ’s spiritual Bread and the Holy Spirit’s spiritual Water? Shalom.

 

“The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. ~ Prov. 13:4; cf. Isa. 55:1-2

 

 Keep it real…Live it out…Watch it work!

 

 

~ from my manuscript – Keeping It Real: Daily Renewing the Mind

The “Salt” of the Earth

14 Tuesday Apr 2015

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Salt of the Earth

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. ~ Matthew 5:13, ESV

 

 

Being someone else’s moral compass is not an easy mission. As the salt of the earth (keepers of moral values, holy and righteous doers), whether we believers in Christ like it or not, we are other people’s spiritual guides for morally appropriate behavior.

The truth is that we neither can be the moral preservation of a society nor a true moral compass, when we are relying on our own strength and wisdom. Trusting our own flesh to give us strength and our own minds to give us wisdom—while we are trying to be the salt of the earth—only means we do not have the Power of God flowing through us. What is frightening about this scenario is that we risk losing ALL credibility, when we fall from Grace while attempting to serve others in the abovementioned carnal condition.

The bottom line is that—as witnesses for Christ—our salt needs to cause individuals to thirst after both the eternal life Giver and His Living Water and Fire. When our salt loses its savor (our saltiness, tang, spiciness, integrity)—when we lose our influence because of our fall from Grace—it is very possible that the people we are meant to influence on Earth either will reject the eternal life Giver or stumble and lose their own salty quality. In other words, the moment our salt loses its savor will be the same moment our witness loses its credibility. Put differently, the moment our witness is compromised will be the very moment our salt becomes worthless.

Without our tang (salty savor or integrity), we cannot affect any person’s thirst. Without our savor, we cannot have any seasoned with salt speech that is pure and has the proper gravitas—that which preserves (keeps) others from the enemy’s corruption. Without our integrity, we cannot point any person to Christ. For these reasons, we have to stay connected to the source of our salt, who is the Holy Spirit. Only God’s Holy Spirit is able to renew and/or replenish our saltiness. 

What we each need to ask ourselves are these questions: Has my lost savor stopped me from thirsting after the Living Water? Have other individuals’ thirst for the Living Water—that I need to be influencing—stopped because of my lost savor?  Shalom.

Keep it real…Live it out…Watch it work!

 

~ from my manuscript: Keeping It Real: Daily Renewing the Mind

Memorex…, NOT

01 Wednesday Apr 2015

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Not A MEMOREX!

And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, ‘Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?’ He answered, ‘Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female,’ and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.’ They said to him, ‘Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?’ He said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.” ~ Matthew 19:3-8, ESV

Repeat button on,
         Rewind in progress.
                                                  Push Stop, then
Play, stereo compatible surround sound.
                          Increase volume; listen; precisioned mechanism.

                                       Garbled…garroted…garbage…
                                                Clarity gone when
                                                 Cleaving’s done.

                          Black hole swallowed portion non-retrievable.
      Blank spot — tape erased:
                              No who, no when, no where, no why…
                                            No face, no trace,
                                            Just empty space.

              Memory — jejune
                        Name that tune.

~ I first posted this poem on iVillage.com on March 22, 2000