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On Not Having Heard from God Recently

Have you ever asked God to tell you what to do?  I have …

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Leave a comment and tell us a story: have you ever received clear instructions from God?  Did you ask for them?

P.S. — Here’s the text of that poem.

On Not Having Heard From God Recently

I think that if I were King,
I'd want a captain who doesn't keep asking,
	What should I do now?
I'd want an agent who knows what I want,
	and does it,
	and rarely asks for advice or permission.
I'd want an independent servant,
	someone I have to seek out
	to comfort from time to time.

I'd find her in the field, at night,
	in the chapel there alone, with her weapons beside her.
I'd sit down next to her,
	pray with her.

After a while, just as dawn began to lighten the sky, I'd say:
	Hello, Captain.
	It's me.
I just want you to know, I'm grateful for all you do.
Anything I can do for you?
Anything you need?

And my captain would smile,
	maybe for the first time in days,
	and she'd say:
No thanks, Boss.
I've got it covered.
2016-03-28T16:54:49-05:00March 28, 2016|2 Comments

The Kiss of the Duck

So, I was just waiting at the dock, minding my own business, when this duck came up and …

[youtube id=rIhKV8UnMhI]

Please share this post, or another of your favorite Merry Mystic posts, with someone you think might enjoy it.  (You can find all the recent Merry Mystic video posts here.)

2016-03-21T20:01:40-05:00March 21, 2016|3 Comments

Turn to the Life

Here’s a new song about responding to that good news.

[youtube id=WcuSO6XrhaU]

Sheet music for “Turn to the Life” is available in the Free Stuff area here.  There are three versions there: voice with piano, voice alone (as for a church bulletin insert), and a choral arrangement.

2016-03-21T19:21:31-05:00March 14, 2016|1 Comment

Break Our Chains

Here’s a new song about God’s signature move.  It’s called “Break Our Chains.” Sheet music for “Break Our Chains” is available in the Free Stuff area here.

Who needs to have their chains broken today, and what should we be doing to help?  Please leave a comment below.

2023-08-08T11:31:20-05:00February 29, 2016|6 Comments

Snow Day

No school today on account of snow — in our local public schools, and at Central Michigan University as well. Reminds me of another of those songs we used to sing when I was a boy. This was a parody of an old vaudeville and music hall song:

Ta ra ra boom de ay
There is no school today
The teacher passed away
She died of tooth decay
We threw her in the bay
She scared the fish away
And when we took her out
She smelled like sauerkraut

Heartless little beasts, weren’t we?

2016-02-25T09:27:30-06:00February 25, 2016|0 Comments

Three More Days

Last week, I shared a poem with you: “Prayer for Children Going to School.” (If you missed that post, it’s still available here.) I’ve had requests to say a bit more about this — some of our Merry Mystics found it rather disturbing! So in this week’s video, I talk a bit more my school days, and some of my other prayers for schoolchildren and their parents. There’s a song, too: “Three More Days.”

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(If you’d like to hear all of “Three More Days,” you can find it online here.)

Three more days and we are free … so we used to sing on the school bus, when any vacation was approaching. Do you remember a song like that, something the kids used to sing on your school bus or playground? Your homework for today is to leave a comment and tell us about it.

2016-02-22T19:08:20-06:00February 22, 2016|4 Comments

Prayer for Children Going to School

Today I have a poem to share with you. Check out the video below.

[youtube id=DYpBMHSKarg]

What about your experience of school? Scroll down and share a thought below.

Here’s the text of that poem again.

Prayer for Children Going to School

I saw them waiting in line,
	four children,
	early in the morning,
	backpacks ready and full.
I saw the yellow bus take them away.
And I rode with them in thought to the place they were going:
	the double doors to darkness and to doubt,
	the waiting in lines,
	the permission slips, the hall monitors,
	the subjects to learn and be tested on.
And, of course, the bells.
Regular, like in a monastery, yet so unlike,
	and faster, so much faster,
signifying, over and over:
	stop what you're doing.
	Your time, your will, your body, your soul, count for nothing.
	Can't you see the next machine is waiting for you?
Their sighs rise up regularly
	 with every ringing of the bell.

And I know,
they police themselves ruthlessly, 
	hating any part that exposes them to ridicule.
And these parts, too, rise up regularly,
	a constant stream of despised selves,
	unwhite selves, stuttering selves,
	fat, skinny, ugly selves,
	picked-last-for-kickball selves,
	boyish selves, sissy selves,
	mockable, different, hateful selves,
	all, all, are cast off and rise up to heaven.

I do not believe, O Lord, that you made children
	for this purpose,
	to serve as burnt offerings like this.
You could speak to them;
	please could you speak to them?
You could tell them:
	I am the Lord your God.
	I love these despised selves.
You cast them off, but they rose up to heaven,
	and now I want you to have them back,
	as good as new.

Here's an idea, Lord:
	maybe you could slip them into the backpacks.
Maybe when the bus comes back,
	and the kids come home,
maybe they could open up their bags and find,
	among the books and pens and pencils,
their lost hours,
	and their spent sighs,
	and their beloved selves.
Maybe you could pin a note to them—you know.

And, dear Lord,
	if you find anything else up there,
	anything that rose up forty-odd years ago,
	anything that belongs to me,
	could I have it back please?
I promise to take better care of it this time.
2016-02-15T16:27:13-06:00February 15, 2016|9 Comments

Follow You, My Jesus

“I am a Christian.”  More than two billion people on this planet might say those words.  But, of course, we don’t all mean the same thing when we say them.  With the help of a song, I explain a little bit about what I mean when I say them.

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That’s close to the core of what being a Christian means to me: choosing to follow the way of Jesus.  (Sheet music for the hymn “Follow You, My Jesus” is available from the Free Stuff page on this web site.)

It’s an oddly contentious matter, this word “Christian.”  I’ve had people get really angry with me because my definition differs from theirs.  But I won’t get angry, I promise, if yours differs from mine.  So, what about you?  Do you call yourself a Christian?  Why or why not?

 

2016-02-08T13:20:39-06:00February 8, 2016|0 Comments

The Stars Sing Out Your Song of Joy

I’m not naturally a joyful person.  (Just ask my wife: she says I’m more often broody and intense.)  But there’s is great song of joy going on all around us, and sometimes, I just have to chime in.

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(Sheet music for the hymn “The Stars Sing Out Your Song of Joy” is available from the Free Stuff page on this web site.)

2016-02-01T14:33:22-06:00February 1, 2016|0 Comments

When I Hunger

I’ve been thinking about the deep connection between our physical longings and our spiritual longings — between our physical joys and our spiritual joys.  In this issue of The Merry Mystic, I share a new hymn that rejoices in that connection.  Then I talk about the missing verse: a verse I didn’t write that was begging to be written.  As you listen to the song, can you guess what’s missing?

[youtube id=”8p4hSQa40Ys”]

(Sheet music for the hymn “When I Hunger” is available from the Free Stuff page on this web site.)

2016-01-25T18:16:45-06:00January 25, 2016|2 Comments
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