King: power to move and inspire

We don't have Kings anymore. It's good to be king, they say - but what does that mean? Being on top? Untouchable? In many ways I think our unfamiliarity with a King and cultural conditioning to find the idea of unequivocal power repulsive creates a hindrance for our ability to conceive of an all-powerful, almighty, sovereign God. We insert democratic ideals into our God-Man relationship. But that's a whole series of ideas...




MLK impresses me as a leader. He's an archetype of a unique class of leaders. They led well. Many have led well. MLK led against the odds. Many have. MLK led a mass of people over which he had no actual authority/power. Again, not unique. MLK led with conviction. Less common, but not unique. MLK pushed a proverbial flywheel towards a quantum idea without compromising values or beliefs. Means never justified themselves by the end goal. That is rare.



If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.

A man can't ride your back unless it's bent.

A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.

A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan. (what's the church version of this statement?)

We will speed the day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing... Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I'm free at last.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

The ultimate test of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and moments of convenience, but where he stands in moments of challenge and moments of controversy.

King: "Aish Tamid"

The place lays phased like a warrior slayed
Engraved into the space with his sword still raised
Layers of charcoal sprayed through hallways
Praise relays off the walls echoing all ways

Dirt covered earth lays beneath my rib cage
Giving birth to overgrowth invading on to path ways
Burnt out trees cover streets where children once played
Sown seeds decay through sacred stepping stones in disarray
Where the alter used to be placed inter-changed for bloodstains
Sunrays illuminate the smoke filled haze
Trace of incense the scents of sacrifice stayed

Aish tamid eternally
Fire burns continuously
Wondering where you been
Won't you come to me?

Flash back patches of grass growing wild in fact
Cracked walls burnt black like a kingdom sacked
Memories like artifacts attacked yet still intact
Melodies wrapped in glass and shattering with the impact

Air intermingling ringing with the singing
of songs once sung, flung into the rafters
Catastrophe struck the sound stuck
Disaster plastered
The aftermath a blasted building once standing, like a starved man fasting
the skies expanding clouds passing, dust particles dancing,
in broken bars of light, streaming from a shaft, slashed into the ceiling,
Sshhhh, you could feel the ground breathing.

Aish tamid eternally
Fire burns continuously
Wondering where you been
Won't you come to me?

Daughter of Zion is lying crying in the mist
Morning light slips in, shifting through the darkness
Like a morning wife reminisce having visions of her long gone prince
Memories drip rain drops tip towing emptiness
Intermixed with tears like fears left unfixed
Walls worn thin frozen fortress like dawn waiting for the sunrise of a day that got skipped
Like a life gone wrong wandering wilderness
Lovesick stripped abyss missing once luscious

Aish tamid eternally
Fire burns continuously
Wondering where you been
Won't you come to me?

Ill Paint the scene so you could see, the city's picking up speed
I’m on a bench 14th street, taxi's streaming yellow streaks
Spears piercing through my ears, you could hear the traffic speak
Jack hammers drill smackling through the crackling concrete
Buildings filled with windowsills spilled tangled telephone wires
Signs sparking neon lights flash like wild fire
My insides rise I start to feel paralyzed
Let out a sigh-a melody blew by- like an ancient war cry
the way the sunlight hit the leaves it really caught my eye,
glistening' listening' to the breeze dancing' through the leaves on the trees,
freeze, the city move's in slow motion like a dream

I'm left empty like the temple turned into a fox den
Bus fumes dripping spitting into city summer sun
Sifting through the ash dimly lit vision listening
To the hiss lifting off a nighttime ocean
Shim, shim, shimmering singeing hair on my skin
whispering where ya been

From amidst the darkness set sail with the softness
Breeze traveling across the seas arisen from within Mt. Zion
Wind coming in picking up momentum
Cutting crisply through the thickness riding on a rhythm
A rollercoaster sizzling, twisting down the mountain
ripping rocket ship exploding like a fountain
overflowing spilling through the courtyard of Jerusalem It all begun
I see busting through the rubble bubbling drying up the puddles precision
Uncovering debris lifting up the fallen arisen within
to reach the yiddin even in Manhattan
exposed menorah glowing in the shadows of destruction
trailblazing through affliction
brushing off the branches golden
standing strong flames
dancing like a lion roaring rising out of nothing

"Aish Tamid" by Matisyahu

My Greatest Fear: being fully consumed

Great fears always tend to have roots in self. However, Davide rightly captured the great driver of fears in the posting on "me." That really could be parsed and sliced into 5-6 separate posts, but I will discipline myself to not just draft his idea down the bloody turnpike...

Perhaps the unspoken fear that has tormented me the most is that of being fully consumed by the all-powerful, living God. The Bible describes God as an "all-consuming fire" and a jealous persona who desires nothing short of 100%. It's part of His awe-someness but also the real terror when you find your "own" life, identity, agenda and will being the fodder for this fire.

There have been numerous times in my spiritual journey when I became uniquely aware of the loss of self happening as I was being quickened to a "not I who lives but Christ in me" point of abandon. Quite honestly it is terrifying. Call it the cost of discipleship, call it full surrender, call it whatever - there's something scary about handing over the reins of your life, of becoming a vassal of a King...even one you trust entirely.

This fear - of not just being an ally but truly an employed vassal - has led me to intentionally sabotage the progression. Yes, I've tossed proverbial wrenches in the gears of my sanctification in order to stall and assess if I was really ready to be fully consumed. Perhaps it's why I felt affinity for Augustine so much, who transparently journaled, "O Lord, help me to be pure...but not yet."

My greatest fear is also the greatest handicap in life...a fear that immobilizes when approaching the perceived tipping point after which divine inertia will surpass personal ability to control acceleration or navigation. As if I ever did truly possess such powers!