God = Not a Sadist

(x = space)

x

x

God = Not a Sadist

(read God equals not a sadist)

x

Pain is good

It teaches us

It tempers us

We come out wholer people

Better for it

Pain is the megaphone

Says Lewis

Pain is loud

Ginsberg might say

(might say)

Pain howls

x

But it doesn’t howl

Because it’s good:

Pain is bad

It hurts

Great pain hurts

Great

After great pain

The formal feeling comes

Does God allow pain?

Does God wish it?

I don’t know

Christ in the garden

Asked not to feel hurt

And he was

Severely

Bloody

Hurt

Until he died

We say he had to die

Well and good

For theology

And there was real joy

In his returning

Perhaps he felt it first

x

I don’t like to hurt

I hope you don’t

I’m in pain now

My neck, my lower back

My eyes from lack of sleep

I have heart disease

And it seems my heart and lungs

Work against me

When it hurts to breathe

Though they are not the source

They are victimized

By fluid

That should not be flowing,

Pressing there

x

Worse, my brother dies from cancer

And it hurts

The medicine might help

It also creates new trials

A passing between pain

And something like sedation

And somehow in the middle

Is what’s living

x

And you hurt

I don’t know how

And the world hurts

In every fracture

x

So where is God?

Where is the love of God?

Where is God is love?

God is there

Love’s there

If God allows

Much less or much more

Created pain

Then there is love as well

Also created

And I think

Preferred

x

But pain is hard

It’s not good

We say pain is gain

But it isn’t

Pain is a signal that

Something’s wrong

And we’ll find out

Everyone finds out

The world dissembles, but

Pain is true

Pain sometimes teaches

Usually after the fact

Or in someone else’s story

x

I think if pain

Could not be real

If we couldn’t have it

That would be

Better

We might say we’d

De-evolve without it

Maybe so

But then

The world would have to change

And would be changed

We don’t know how

We live with pain

We even bear it

When it won’t

Go away,

x

Which doesn’t mean

We should like it

That God should like it

Wish it

Before the fall,

We might well guess

There was no pain

x

Sorry

There’s pain now

I don’t wish for you

Your pain means

A great deal to me

I cannot make it

Magic

Go away

Or mine

We’re stuck

And while we’re stuck

Comes all the learning

All the tempering like

Metal fired

And then struck

At least we’re not the ashes

At least we’re here

For everything

Imagined,

More so

Realized

And that’s what we have to say

Pain is real

x

C L Couch

x

x

(a Sunday School discussion from James 1, an epistle in the Christian New Testament)

x

notes (references)

Mere Christianity

“Howl”

“After Grean Pain, a Formal Feeling Comes”

x

[photographer’s narration] When we visited Utö, the most outer island of this beautiful archipelago in the place we call Finland, I allowed myself to be guided by the incredible energy of Inca, the daughter of the family we were visiting there. She took me to a series of abandoned bunkers from the times this island was a military strategic point and there I found this graffiti that represent very well the feeling of all that has to do with military, war, conflict and drama. With love from Korpo.

Photo by Aarón Blanco Tejedor on Unsplash

x

Poor Evangelist

(x = space)

x

x

Poor Evangelist

x

I am a Christian

x

I hope anyone who

Needs to know

For good or ill

Knows that

x

The things is

I don’t mind if you are not

x

In fact, if you are from

Another faith

I’ll find that interesting

And want

To know

Something of your story

x

It’s bad evangelism

I know

And I’ll be glad

Typically

To tell you more about my faith

x

But I am entrenched

(without the trenches)

With respect

x

I want

To respect your tradition

Or your lack of one

Or somewhere in between

x

I think this is what we need

In the world just now

x

With respect,

We might withhold our fingers

From the buttons

x

We might shut up our cant

Or rant

Instead to listen

x

Stories are personal

And of a people

x

After and while happening,

Most stories deserve

To be heard

x

Shut down the hate

To hear

And have your circle of perspective

And acceptance widened

x

Hope to be treated

The same way

And that the Earth will hold

Together

From our destructive devices

Not only military

While we listen

And by impulse,

The way we are constructed,

Learn

x

To say

To welcome

And to hear

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

x

Secular Benediction

(x = space)

x

x

Secular Benediction

x

It’s Friday

And you should have a good day

You deserve it

Yes, because you are

And because

You make it

For yourself

And if circumstance allow

For you and someone else

Or others

x

You do

You are

And so this Friday is for you

In all suburban glory

The pub afterward

Or coffee klatch

Or whatever fun and healthy thing

(there are these)

At hand

Or with a small investment

In play

And for the forty hours

Ahead

x

And if you don’t have a weekend

Maybe Monday and Tuesday

Shall be yours

There should be laws

Why, there are

x

x

C L Couch

x

Photo by Bob Chisholm on Unsplash

x

First Page of Every Book

(x = space)

x

x

First Page of Every Book

x

What might God say

But that

There was a word

The word in fact

Was God

And in our words

God breathes

And the making of the Earth

Was God’s

And our keeping

Or rejecting

Is our own

x

This from opening

The gospel

Pick a book of books

For all the horror

The unmaking

The possessing

And abandoning

Of spirits

We say good news

Inhabits

And abounds

Hope for ourselves

The grownups

And the children

Hope for the world

Of people

And of ground and water

x

For in the beginning

Was a word

Beside all words

It was love

And inspiration

Breath of God

And God

A word that made

From nothing

Gave us

Everything

With the proviso of

Two trees

And one rule

x

So much for that

We’re here as are here

There is hope left

In the box

Made of word perhaps

And this its second purpose

x

So many stories

Now

For elucidation

And companionship

Upon the journey

In the other way

From a detail of

A flaming sentinel

An ersatz beacon

Showing us

The way

We may not go

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Andrew A on Unsplash

x

A Prayer for Running Fast

(x = space)

x

x

A Prayer for Running Fast

x

God,

Keep us this day

A helicopter crash in Ukraine

Kills civilians

But then it is a war at home

Battlefields lost their discretion

Long ago

x

There are fires

In my area

With human loss

And then materials

House fires

Are fearful to contemplate

To see

To hear the testimony

On the news

Of loss

And victims

Who are hurt

Who die

Who die later on

Because house fires have consequences

Changing life

After what happens now

x

There are changes

Some by force

We can blame nature

Or each other

The neighborhood beneath the bridge

Is ending

By the hands of institutions

Other hands will help

With the newly homeless

So that there will be

Breathing out

That problem resolved,

We’ll say for now

Then think about other things

Quickening

Our palates

x

So what do we care about?

What happens to ourselves

That’s natural

Our reaching toward

The plight

Or the good news

Of others

That is an instinct

From an impulse

God-given trait

Or capacity

We train

And practice

Like a discipline

Like any discipline

Run fast?

Care for others

x

Be a coach

Be a pal

You are sovereign

God of gods and

Lord of the self-styled lords

You are our king

Our queen

Allegiance

And tribute

Are ours to give

To pledge from our own knowing

And our gifting

And yet you’ll turn around

To teach us

And provide

x

It is a mystery

A frustrating mystery

Of labor

Sweat

And drops of blood

Each day

In all our stations

And yet we ask

In all our stations

Be with us

Start and close the day with us

Talk with us

Provide

Not as a tontine

Not as prophecy

But like love notes

Or neighbors come to coffee

And to be with us

When we stumble

Or when

Dear things

Dear lives

Must crash

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Bruno Nascimento on Unsplash

x

Ukraine’s interior minister among at least 14 killed in helicopter crash

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ukraines-interior-minister-among-at-least-14-killed-in-helicopter-crash/ar-AA16t1eO

x

Plane Crash in Nepal

(x = space]

x

x

Plane Crash in Nepal

x

preamble

x

And if you think of other planes

Dimensions, even

Torn and torn apart

I think you’re tragically

Correct

x

story

x

If you’ve ever seen

A landing in Nepal

(I saw one, recorded)

Then you saw

How steep

How brief

A perilous experience

Considered normal

Was there sudden wind

Inside the mountains

Of Himalaya?

Was there ennui

Among the pilots

Who got too used to doing this?

Was there worse

Or better

Doesn’t matter

To the loss of life

That’s final on this side

And for us

All the keening

And investigating

A place of peril

On a good day

This was not a good day

It was a horror

Out of normalcy

We like to think plane landings

Are ho-hum

Not a terror

The humdrum fabric

On the loom

Ripped apart

The frames of bodies

Broken

Flung and sung away

For furies

Or other agencies

Who mission is to surprise death

Out of our ordinary

x

This was ordinary

Leisure

Otherwise, uninteresting

Now the count

The cost

The loss

The news

Prayers lining up through ages

A horrible new age

Unending sorry

Ending

Beginning

Some kind of cycle no one

Wants to live through

And live through

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Rahul Lal on Unsplash

The Other Side of Himalays

Pokhara, Nepal

x

Stone of Help

(x = space)

x

x

Stone of Help

(MLK Junior Day)

x

MLK Junior

I don’t know much

About the senior

Except he changed the name of junior

On learning about

Reformation

x

I have been to the church

As many have

Name from the Bible

Ebenezer

“stone of help”

Set up near Mizpah

(itself a place of blessing)

As a sign

Of victory

And settlement

And a home of peace

For a long while

x

You can look it up

The President spoke yesterday

At the church

There was applause

I’m not sure how many

Contributed to the words

But they spoke to affirmation

And forward-moving

Business

x

The sun shines

Yellow and gold

After a series of gray days

I’m sure that’s good

For sales

x

His actual birthday

Is the fifteenth,

Which was yesterday

You know, the ides

Of January

x

I ramble

But ramble means to walk

And we have

Walking to do

Far to go

And back again

Bearing new days

With less hate

If we must hate at all

Maybe real threats

That never were these

But better still

To respond in love,

The strength and home

In it

x

Build on this

The black day

And the white

And all colors in between

Churches should be safe

They should also be inspiring

For they’re people,

Don’t you know,

Not stone or wood

Or columns,

Even friendly porches

x

They’re people

In Atlanta

And in Washington

New York

Paris

Geneva

Cairo

And Jerusalem

Mumbai

And Beijing

Tokyo

x

Capitals

Big cities

And small towns

And not in towns

We can meet on a field

Grasp hands without weapons

Maybe have a picnic

Signs of peace

Mostly of good food

x

And end to hunger

Not of exploration

But of need

The daily kind

For which we pray of bread

And for each other

x

An altar there

In fact,

In every place of peace

Agreed

Maybe stones of help

x

C L Couch

x

x

By Southern Arkansas University – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64713156

x

dispersed

(x = space)

x

x

dispersed

(from the beginning of the book of James)

x

we were together, Mom and Dad

(physical or meaningful)

now we are spread far

we can always say

the Romans did this

but there is our own

polemics

stranding us

separated

in a world driven by

its own prince

that drove Jesus

in the wilderness

from one arid part to another

x

I’m sorry we are no longer

together

though we have letters

we are the legacy of David, still

we are a people

and, as always,

we are family

I hope you are well where you are

I hope that work and food

come easily

I fear, because I know

such things are never certain

we came away with what we had

some maybe had accounts

and interests along the Mediterranean,

generally

x

we live today

and in the Messianic time

and must take hope in that

God will return

God also waits for us

like the shepherd by the

clear stream,

both to beckon

x

and God is with us, now

with love

x

with love,

this note from your child

we all are children now

again

x

c l couch

x

x

James is a brief letter in the Christian New Testament; the pastor preached on James this morning at Covenant Evangelical Presbyterian Church in West Lafayette, Indiana (USA)

x

photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

x

devotional rant

(x = space)

x

x

devotional rant

x

i hear the cat upstairs

my brother dies from cancer

floods kill people

in the South

the Russian war goes on

and there are fires elsewhere

made by us

weapons

and-or

mania

x

there must be reasons for these

and there are

that might be the easy part

will

and stakes for will

this is not for training

this is real

i should say

i don’t know

how all this might apply

to what’s next

what’s coming

x

for now

the harder part

is having what we have

and turning victory

from unshapen shapes

of loss

the lathe of heaven

she writes,

refining all that’s here

x

and yet outside the story

(the story teaches)

we have

what we have

and must make do

and should do better

we should win

not over each other

but over demons

on the earth,

ones that are

ones we make

x

we know better

our skill is better

we can help each other

so much better

some do

the rest ought

to do

x

we have the instruments

play on

war on

peace on

x

c l couch

x

x

note

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin

x

Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash

x