the reason—not just for you—we all rise.”
Arie was a thin, diminutive man,
Not a man with a big booming voice.
We’re often much clearer that the Spirit’s at hand
By the irony of the Spirit’s human choice.
Wise is suspicion of a charismatic man;
He appeals to the ideal in us all.
We can lose ourselves in his animation,
And forget that the Spirit’s in us all.
Pastor’s ordination had been self-ordination:
At the center was his ego, not God;
But he was haunted by his own imperfection,
Which he tried hard to deny but could not.
He believed God wanted him to be perfect
Before using him, so he tried hard to hide
His inadequacies, but then all he had left
Was false modesty and a self-deluding pride.
He’d thus set himself up to be desolate,
Cut off from other humans and God.
The real God didn’t expect him to be perfect,
But to be humble and empowered by God.
What Arie offered him was the gift of new life:
God’s presence as mediated through words,
And a roomful of men channeling love,
Reassuring him he could serve as he was.
So the Pastor was freed from his prison,
Learned the distinction between himself and his role.
He could accept that he was a fellow fallen human,
And that a Leader is servant of all.3
The whole tone of that Meeting Room changed:
There was camaraderie and mutual respect.
He learned to welcome their greeting of him,
To receive their blessing like a robe round his neck.
God’s Word is indeed a sharp two-edged sword;4
But that Word pierces in order to heal.
The cut goes deep to the marrow in the bone,
But then from deep inside out we’re made whole.
It was my father who told me this story.
He was an Elder in that meeting room that day.
He was amazed at God speaking through Arie,
And how the Spirit gives the right words to say.5
2. The Holy Bible, Matthew 19:30; 20:16.
3. Op. cit., Luke 22:26.
4. Op. cit., Hebrews 4:12.
5. Op. cit., Luke 12:12.
Twelve-Year-Old Face, Holy Heart
You know how when sitting with someone
Whom you’re meeting for the very first time,
Your talk focuses on superficial things,
And at this point everything is fine:
It goes sort of like in a slow dance:
You’ve gotten together out on the floor,
But at first you don’t have much confidence,
That you won’t make a stumbling misstep?
But then you get into a good rhythm;
You’re learning things about one another,
Of a nature both factual and actual,
Especially about the level of trust.
So it happened one day I was sitting
With a mother whom I had known before;
This time she was there with her daughter,
Poised, twelve, and appealingly demure.
It’s June, so I ask about her summer plans.
She tells me she’s going to an equine camp
For two weeks with one of her friends;
That she’s taking a year off from the other camp
That she attended for five weeks last summer.
With an air of authority she tells me this,
As if she makes decisions like this all of the time.
Next minute she’s twelve again, snuggling up to Mom,
A slight wisp of a girl shyly telling me that
She’s glad when Mom doesn’t have early morning meetings
Because then she, Mom, and their dog Lulu
Can all three walk together to her school.
Then, this is the moment I’m talking about,
In which the person says something which allows
You to look deep into the heart of their being:
You get a glimpse of just who they really are
At their given age and at that moment in time.
She leans forward and says, “Besides,
I’m glad when my Mom is around
Because I mosey.”
Her
