April 29, 2018

IF ONLY WE COULD HEAR

Being a preacher I stand there in

the pulpit - inwardly biting my nails -

inwardly wondering - if everyone

here today could scream out what

they are really thinking and talking

to themselves about, what would

I hear? I have my suspicions:

“Hurry up?” “What?” “I have no

clue what you’re talking about.”

“God forgive him, for he knows

not what he’s saying or doing.”

“Okay, I got the message - stop

repeating yourself. I heard this from

you three times in the last month.”

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018 

April 29, 2018 

Thought for today: 

“I could not say I believe. I know! I have had the experience of being gripped by something that is stronger than myself, something that people call God.”

April 28, 2018 -

Thought for today: 

“An atheist is a  man  who  believes himself an accident.”  

Francis Thompson

April 28, 2018

HANDS JOINED

Sometimes in sorrow and hurt

we join one hand with our other

hand and we pray and we

scream inwardly and silently.

Sometimes in sorrow and hurt

we join hands with another or

others and we pray and scream

together and this is better.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

April 27, 2018

REALITY

The wind has disappeared and 

the water is mirror still and the

race is cancelled as we

head back to the dock ....

Peanut butter somehow gets

on the outside label of the jar ….

Coffee stains appear on the cup -

both plastic and porcelain....

We yawn. And it hurts our jaw

sometimes ….

Another surprises us with an

announcement that knocks 

our socks off....

Guilt is hard to shake - sometimes

taking years - sometimes never....

Loneliness hides under chairs, beds,

especially when we’re alone - but

sometimes when we’re in the middle

of a wedding, a funeral, or a crowd....

We get cuts, hemorrhoids, the flu....

We wonder if all this God stuff is

true - or we wonder why God has

blessed us so, so much….

  

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018 

April 27, 2018 

Thought for today: 

“Time  wounds  all  heels.”  

Jane Ace - 1965-1974, 

From Goodman Ace, 

The Fine Art of Hypochondria; 

or, How Are You? [1966]

LYNCHING

There is something in us -

that reminds us - that we can 

be both beautiful and crazy -

helping or hurting one another 

in the same hour or  same day.

It’s right there in the front pages 

of our Bibles - we can  reach for 

forbidden fruit and walk with our God 

in the cool of the evening - and one brother 

can kill one’s brother the next morning. 

There is something in us that tells 

us to build memorials - for those 

who were stoned, shot, crushed, 

gased, lynched, so we never forget, 

“Every person screams  with God, ‘I am!’” 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018