a tree in the park

There is a tree in the park
It’s the home of a small bird’s nest
I don’t know if it’s a raven or a lark
All I see are the striking colors on its chest.

But its not the bird that impresses my eye;
It’s the tree; this large oak tree with branches long,
Who daily has intimacy with the dirt and sky,
Showing them its secrets, its stories, and its song

Yes there is music in the trees
Each one has its own voice and tone
Its motifs are the romance in the breeze
And raging anger in the gale’s groan.

But this tree has a different song than most
It was meant to be in a forest of his own
But he was planted alone, like a wilderness post
Tortured when other leaves to his base are blown.

His song is sad, lonely and longing for companionship
He has shaded lovers kissing for the first time,
Swung a child who didn’t want to feel his father’s grip,
And held a man who took his life…history’s greatest crime.

When night would fall he could see the lights of the city,
And could see the trees of the forest finding comfort together,
But it was silent here…not even wind to carry his song of pity.
Why had he been planted there?

One day men came and measured him with sticks
They were harsh and made him afraid.
For centuries he had stood tall but now would fall.
His many markings of every generation would be sliced by a blade.

The dawn of his morning was quiet, the air thin.
Then a young girl startled him with the most beautiful sound.
She was singing, and he knew that she sang for him
She was looking at him, their eyes met and that was enough.

He thought that it was strange that for the first time he felt loved,
She came and touched his face for the last time and took out a knife
She carved something into his body, something amongst the many,
Yet it was the most beautiful thing he had seen in his long life

There is a tree in the park,
The breeze blows through his branches one last time.
One final note in his music, heard only by his lark.
But his music, his love, and his story will forever by mine.

Heart Yearns

How my heart yearns
To know what it wants.
How it years, aches, pounds
For something that has meaning
For something that has feeling.
Laughter and smiling faces,
Sadness and weeping eyes,
Emotion and satisfaction,
Lust and seduction,
Comfort and tenderness,
Unconditional love and intimacy,
Dancing and pulsing bodies with joy,
A child’s smile, an elder’s wisdom,
Living life side by side with someone,
Finding something new in every moment,
Knowing my God and His abundant love,
Seeing Him in every atom, in every galaxy.
Wonder and mystery, never satisfied
Never happy, yet always full of joy
Full of questions, full of answers
Seeing every star and pondering their names
Seeing every tree and awed by their stories.
Wondering what each could tell, what each could share
Full of memory, full of life
Full of passing from one era to the next.
How short, how fleeting life is.
It starts with crawling and crying
It continues with uneasiness in yourself;
Hoping that someone cares that you are unique.
Then ambition hits and every step is climbing the ladder.
You want to be significant; to matter
Every moment is spent trying to make a difference.
Then age catches you and the only thing that matters
Are those that saw you crawl so many years ago.
It ends with crying, hoping and wonder.
Wondering whether someone will care,
Wondering whether someone will notice you were unique,
Wondering whether those that you saw crawl will be with you.
Then it ends with a final breath, a final gasp
It ends like it began, gasping for one more breath
Gasping for one more glimpse…just one more look.
Experiencing death is perhaps the most important part of life.
It is only the second thing that we all experience:
Birth and death, the thing that makes us truly fragile and mortal.
We desperately don’t want it to end, we desperately want to delay it.
We want to add more breathes to the last one that will come.
But we know it will come, so we try to make it count
We try to make it worth it, we try to find glory,
We strive for riches, fame, acceptance and greatness.
We try to experience every pleasure we can think of,
Every imaginative experience that we can conceive we try.
But then we see it coming, and it all of a sudden become worthless.
It is in that moment that we truly know what it was that we couldn’t find.
Maybe it is because people have been seeking it, always falling short.
It’s like a storm coming in from the sea
It gets closer and closer, darker and darker.
The rumbles get louder, and the waves get bigger
Then all of sudden it gets quiet, the wind stops for a moment
And it seems that every leaf, every drop of water and grain of sand listens.
In that moment there is something that every creature, every atom strives for
It is what every human being was really looking for, what they longed for.
Every atom stops, and every sound is gone, because it feels something,
Something deep and able to be described in one word. Peace.
Let me feel like I have never felt,
Let me see like I have never seen,
Love like I have never love, and give like I have never given.
Let me know what it means to breath my first and last every day,
So that when my last day comes I will feel that peace.
That peace that passes all understanding.

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lkesde flor flkesde...

I always thought that being an artist was a great thing. I always thought that the singer would be the one that was given the chance to sing. I always thought that the guitar player would be given the chance to play the guitar. I always thought that being an artist was something much more than performing. I always thought that being an artist was so much more than making money. I always thought that being an artist was so much more. I thought that it was about showing truth in a way that people had not thought about. I thought that it was about showing something beautiful. I thought it was about showing something sad that only human emotions could feel. I thought that it was something that separated humanity from animals. The ability to create and show that man was indeed created to be a creator. I thought it was about showing people a perspective that could not be shown unless done through that art. I thought that without art the world would be less beautiful, it would not feel as much, it would not care as much...
it seems that i was wrong though. Because artists are the most beautiful people. They are the most charismatic people. They are the best performers. They are the best entertainers. They are those who will do what is needed to makes sales.
I am sorry for those who gave us such great art. I am sorry that they gave us such a beautiful example that no one cares about. I am sorry that their will not be anyone like them again.

Masculine Renaissance

I would ask every man to look at this website and consider joining or at least becoming a pioneer in this cause. Please look at the 12 points at the bottom of the page. And please search through the rest of the website:
http://www.americanmustacheinstitute.org/AMIHistory.aspx

Thoughts from Europe

I just spent two wonderful weeks in Europe. My first destination was Riga, Latvia. Then I spent six days in the beautiful historical city of Prague. It was an amazing time for me in these two nations. There were a lot of thoughts that i had. So i will try and communicate some of them in this blog...and I hope that you will read it to the end.
While I was in Latvia I realized a lot of things about myself that were so refreshing, encouraging and inspiring. I realized why when I was growing up, all the way until very recently, my dream was to be in the ministry. I have often asked myself how is it that I could have had that desire. Going back made those desires seem so real again. Being in the ministry over there is so different than it is here in Nashville. Yes there are some amazing people here that are in the ministry and there are so many great leaders of our religion in this city. Yet the longer I have lived here the more that desire has faded. When I went there and saw how being in the ministry is really about two things. Two things that our entire life should be about anyways: loving god and loving people. There was such a refreshing sense of trying to help people find God. Such a sense of trying to help people walk through life as a shepherd to their soul and their spiritual, physical, emotional, and relational well-being. I even found myself feeling the rumblings within my own soul to do ministry again.
Another thing that I realized as I was there was how much we (myself, friends, and community) have lost the dream of reaching people for Jesus. We are all dreamers. Dreaming huge dreams to make the world a better place. But for some reason we have become humanistic in our desires to better mankind. We want to help people and give people a voice. However, we have taken Jesus out of the picture. We seek to share god's love without ever mentioning god. We seek to better mankind without ever mentioning its only true help. I dont know why we have become like this. We try not to "over-spiritualize" things. We try and create art that is relevant and creative but shy away from, no even mock those who use the name of Jesus and His gospel. That was something that was honestly very convicting to me while I was there. People there burn, weep, crave for the salvation of peoples souls. They live to see one more life come to Jesus. There is no shame of His name, no shame of his message, and no shame of being bold enough to say that He and He alone is what I can offer you. I realized within my own heart how much I had become deliberate about doing things that were humanitarian, and effective but that eliminated Jesus. Of course you know that I very much want to be creative in how I share the gospel, create art, and live life. But someone said to me there, "I want to be radical for him. I want to be able to get to the place where I can be like Paul in saying, let me be damned if it would mean saving Israel." I thought wow...give me a heart again to see people come to Jesus. Not just better their outward live, but to preach the gospel to those who need Him. And let me run to you...yes be radical for you. I saw that when christians are friends there, they dont just hang out, have a good laugh and go home. Their spiritual lives are intertwined. They are striving together. Fighting for each other. But what made it so inspiring is that it is so not about them. It is about the dream. The dream of finding god. And the dream of reaching a world for Jesus. We WERE once like this...
One other thing that I realized while I was there is how beautiful it is to love one's country. I came to firmly believe the more I was in Europe how each person from their own country should protect their culture, land, and people. There are a lot of things that are happening in Europe that are detrimental because as a continent they have tried to implement a philosophy of open borders. There is something beautiful and extremely necessary about protecting your nation from those things that you do not want there. I talked to some people from Spain while I was in Prague, and they told me how much they were tired of people coming to their nation and living there and losing Spanish culture. I heard these same words from a Latvian man in Riga. Yes we should be open to other cultures, and visit the world. We can learn from many cultures. But there is a line that we must draw in the sand and say that this is our property. Just like we have our own houses and we dont just let anyone come into our homes or we dont all just share one big community house. And we must be patriotic of being who we are. IT is a beautiful thing to love one's country, and love one's countrymen.
So those are some of my thoughts....so many more...maybe i can write more sometime

Donkeys and Fish

Donkeys and fish don't go together
Neither should we have peace forever.
Frustration comes like a hunch
Or a fighters ugly right punch.
How many Americans have had a dream?
Millions of them other than Martin Luther King
Donkeys and fish dont go together
Just like if horses had a feather.
Sit down and watch the fireworks,
Sing with a bunch of disillusioned jerks.
Then hear the knocking at your door,
And you ask what was all that crap for?