What you are to me
Is hard for me to speak
You come to me in changing forms
Now ocean waves on tired shores

I doubt that I could capture you
But I would never try
To touch a reflection
Is to watch it ripple away

What I would be alone is a mystery
There is no life in my heart without you
Despite all that I have known before you
I have known nothing but you since

I used to love my paradoxes -
Until I found my soul to be darker than I care to admit.
But with the right amount of spin
Even depravity looks lovely.
And the mask of perfection will never slip
As long as pride is there to hold it in place.
Not really all that funny -
That fake is much uglier than vulnerable.

This afternoon, my mother and I were discussing our negative attitudes regarding some of the trials and frustrations we have been experiencing lately. Momma said that she recently heard the story of the man who wrote the hymn “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”. An Irish man, Joseph Scriven's engagement ended on the eve of his wedding when his bride-to-be was thrown from her horse into a river where she struck her head and drowned. Scriven eventually made his way to Canada where he lived out his faith by helping the poor and ill in the community. Eventually, he fell in love with a Canadian woman and became engaged. However, this woman died of pneumonia a few months before they were married. And yet the lyrics to this hymn show that despite such intense experiences with tragedy and sorrow, Scriven was a man who understood that true fellowship with Jesus comes through sharing in His sufferings as Paul wrote in Philippians 3.
But in all honesty, I really struggle with considering it pure joy whenever I face trials of many kinds like the apostle James talks about in his book. Rather than welcoming hardships, I usually pray for them to go away as soon as possible.
Thus I was very convicted by something my mother brought up during our conversation. She wondered aloud if as Christians our aversion to hardship, pain, trials, and suffering comes from us being lovers of ourselves, “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).

On May 15th, David Sharp died on the side of Mount Everest from oxygen deprivation. According to one report, more than 40 people saw him as he was dying and continued on their way to the top of the mountain. Sir Edmund Hillary, one of the first men to reach the top of Mt. Everest is quoted as saying, “It was wrong if there was a man suffering altitude problems and was huddled under a rock, just to lift your hat, say 'good morning' and pass on by... I think the whole attitude toward climbing Mount Everest has become rather horrifying. The people just want to get to the top.”

And I have to ask myself what about my attitude? Who do I walk right past in my quest to reach the top, carelessly leaving them to die?

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:16-18

http://kairos.la/blogs/

"They who know the truth are not equal to those who love it
and they who love it are not equal to those who delight in it."
*Confucius

All those things I should have said
are crushing me with their unspoken weight
as I recall the look in your pained eyes
and the strained sound of your heart breaking.
I can't remember what I was thinking
just what I was speaking-
all those things I shouldn't have said.
I'm sorry.

http://kairoslane.blogspot.com/

The echoes of a bitter soul reach my brokenhearted ears.
I whisper tears of sorrow for a life unloved
And tears of hope -
That your tender strength will help him find the home he aches to know.