The Heart Longs

How the heart longs
for a peace unending,
for joy in a friendship
with God.

It longs for an end
to strife and divided lives.

A bird lands
in the nest
and feeds the young
with all that it has gathered

the heart sinks into saying,
YES.  This is as it should be.

A bear takes its young
with it for a season
maybe two.  Turning over
logs and digging through
the ants, licking them up.

It shares its berries and
its grub.  The heart feels
YES again.

But we can not
sit around a table
of faith without
finding diversions that
should not be.  Paying the
mortgage for the too large
building,

collecting more from the
burdened souls that come
to pray
to eat God
to care for the poor.

There can be no teaching
the young to hunger
and thirst for righteousness
when our faith has become
a project, managed to avoid

waste and undue
expense.  We have turned
our Father's House into
a den of thieves and robbers.

How the heart longs

for a peace unending.

It longs for an end

to strife and divided lives.

The heart longs

to be opened by

God, to make

a place for the

King to dwell.

Listen then to the

needs of the heart.

Do not allow

anything else to rule.

Where there are leaders

who call for fiscal reform,

ignore them.

Where there are practical

men who want to build

larger buildings, assail them

with these words:

"I long for YOU."

"Don't bring ME any more 

worthless grain offerings. 

Your incense is disgusting to me, 

so are your New Moon Festivals, 

your days of worship, 

and the assemblies you call. 

I can't stand your evil assemblies."

It is time

for the harvest

there can be

no more dawdling.

The heart knows what

it wants, it longs

for and hopes for

things we have forgotten

to mention.

Find those things.

Seek those things.

Ask for those things.

Be filled with

what can satisfy.

Peace,

Tom +