Isaiah 1

Listen to God's case:
"I had children and raised them well,
and they turned on me.
The ox knows who's boss,
the mule knows the hand that feeds him,
But not Israel.
My people don't know up from down.
Shame! Misguided God-dropouts,
staggering under their guilt-baggage,
Gang of miscreants,
band of vandals—
My people have walked out on me, their God,
turned their backs on The Holy of Israel,
walked off and never looked back.
^5-9"Why bother even trying to do anything with you
when you just keep to your bullheaded ways?
You keep beating your heads against brick walls.
Everything within you protests against you.
From the bottom of your feet to the top of your head,
nothing's working right.
Wounds and bruises and running sores—
untended, unwashed, unbandaged.
Your country is laid waste,
your cities burned down.
Your land is destroyed by outsiders while you watch,
reduced to rubble by barbarians.
Daughter Zion is deserted—
like a tumbledown shack on a dead-end street,
Like a tarpaper shanty on the wrong side of the tracks,
like a sinking ship abandoned by the rats.
If God-of-the-Angel-Armies hadn't left us a few survivors,
we'd be as desolate as Sodom, doomed just like Gomorrah.
¹⁰"Listen to my Message,
you Sodom-schooled leaders.
Receive God's revelation,
you Gomorrah-schooled people.
^11-12"Why this frenzy of sacrifices?"
God's asking.
"Don't you think I've had my fill of burnt sacrifices,
rams and plump grain-fed calves?
Don't you think I've had my fill
of blood from bulls, lambs, and goats?
When you come before me,
whoever gave you the idea of acting like this,
Running here and there, doing this and that—
all this sheer commotion in the place provided for worship?
^13-17"Quit your worship charades.
I can't stand your trivial religious games:
Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings—
meetings, meetings, meetings—I can't stand one more!
Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them!
You've worn me out!
I'm sick of your religion, religion, religion,
while you go right on sinning.
When you put on your next prayer-performance,
I'll be looking the other way.
No matter how long or loud or often you pray,
I'll not be listening.
And do you know why? Because you've been tearing
people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.
Go home and wash up.
Clean up your act.
Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings
so I don't have to look at them any longer.
Say no to wrong.
Learn to do good.
Work for justice.
Help the down-and-out.
Stand up for the homeless.
Go to bat for the defenseless.
:: Isaiah 1 [The Message]

repost. Nov. 18, 2011

What is love?
That which makes us grasp for more.
More of what we cannot produce on our own?
Once experienced it leaves a mark upon ones soul- an ache for more that can never be replaced.

To have love is the ache of the lonely.
To give love is the cry of the selfless.
To cultivate a life of love, I believe, is the greatest accomplishment of the human soul

Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
~Song of Songs 8

skin deep

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
My how true this is.
And how fleeting this perception of beauty the beholder tends to have
So easily distracted and pulled to the next fleeting infatuation termed "beauty"

Slowly, ever so carefully, what was once called beautiful is redefined
Redefined to suit the justification of a heart turned to another
Another, who.... has altogether become
Beauty for the eyes of the same beholder

be there for her

Playlist

Some days I wonder if anyone else feels the way I do.
I think "Maybe one day someone will understand"...
Daily I rise from where I've fallen, and throw myself at another desperate attempt to be known, to find complete belonging, fulfillment and acceptance.
Many call it Futile & Foolish.
I try to do everything right, I try to control my heart and who I let hold it. Even this doesn't solve the problem. I still find myself going back to the same habit- one that began a decade ago. one that seems nearly impossible to break. After all, weren't we meant to know and be known?
To draw close to someone who truly seems to understand.
Full acceptance and complete connection with another is breathtakingly beautiful.

To those who have come... and gone... you've said "I want to know you, understand you. I'll love unconditionally and never leave". I want to believe you. Truly, I do. I am finding through you that this promise is fulfilled because He abides in you too. I will trust the love that He placed in you for me.

"... but God has said, Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."
[Hebrews 13:5]

imperfection is beauty