Haiku For My Grandmother

I've been emailing my grandmother in Seattle while I've been at sea and she has been encouraging me to write haiku. She knows I like writing poetry and in fact, is in a large part responsible for my liking of poetry. She introduced one of her own haiku as an example. You may guess by the haiku that she is an Obama supporter and has a quite dry since of humor.

Morning broken
Shattered by the jerk who stole
My Obama sign

Traditionally haiku are supposed to be about nature but you can do whatever you please I suppose. She asked me to write some of my own and in my next email I didn't so she asked me again. Here are the ones that I sent her in the next email.

Seattle sunshine
No, not today--so we wait
And smile at the clouds

My grandmother says people in Seattle don't smile at the clouds, they spit at them. This second one was her favorite I think because it describes things we both absolutely love!

The morning--coffee
Wind chimes in the breeze--pancakes
A book on the couch

And the last one was inspired by reading Thomas Watson who wrote, "Never do the flowers of grace grow more than after a shower of repentant tears."

Rain falls--bitter drops--
Tears soften the surface--dry hearts
Soon to grow sweet fruit

Tears of Adoption

I was listening to a song tonight called, "All I Really Want For Christmas" by Steven Curtis Chapman. It's sung from the perspective of an adopted child crying out in hope of having a family. I have listened to the song many times but tonight it brought me to tears as I listened,

All I really want for Christmas is for someone to tuck me in,
Tell me I'll never be alone, someone whose love will never end...

As tears came to my eyes I thought about what a joy it would be to adopt to a child and raise him or her. I thought about how it's a lot of work to adopt a child but that seems like such a dumb excuse in light of that child's need! I know some day I want to adopt a child.
I think what really gets me about this song every time I hear it is that I feel like the words of the song are the words of my own heart. My heart wants to have someone tell me that I'll never be alone and for that someone to have love that never ends. And I know that someone is my Father in heaven. Except he's not just in heaven anymore! Haha, he shone into the world through Jesus and now He stays with, even inside us through His Spirit. I love my Father so much and I know in my heart that I will NEVER be alone and His love will NEVER end! Haha, that makes me laugh through my tears. God has been softening my heart lately and calming my soul, giving me dreams and passions to give my life away for Him. He has been making my heart more like a child, quick to trust, quick to hope, quick to believe, and quick to rest in His presence. I am so thankful for Him!

I'll set my gaze on God alone
And trust in Him completely
With every day pour out my soul
And He will prove His mercy
Though life is but a fleeting breath
A sigh to brief to measure
My King has crushed the curse of death
And I am His forever.
-from Stuart Townend, "My Soul Finds Rest (Psalm 62)"

The Sigh of Autumn

by Patrick Kruse

Autumn is like a sigh
After deep breaths of summer joys.
Bright mornings filled with birds singing,
Warm afternoons with the sun shining
On green trees that sway in the wind,
Swaying still in the cool evenings
As their shadows move against the sky.
These are all joys that linger with sweetness
As the cool autumn days descend.

Autumn is like a sigh
As the wind loosens the colored leaves
And creeps through your sweater,
Making you shiver;
As your bicycle rolls past smoking chimneys
And leaves crunch softly in your path;
As you finally sink into your cushioned seat
And scents of stew and spice
Settle in your nose.

Autumn is like sigh
As both sweet and painful memories
Become stars in the winter sky;
As the cold wind makes ripples on the water
And you slip silently downstream;
And nature uses its last, measured breaths
To sing a sweet song
Before it closes its eyes in death.

A Father's Heart

How important is the word "Father" in the Bible? It's a word not used to refer to God until the New Testament and when it finally is, it refers to the Father who sent His Son to die for us. Then Jesus uses it repeatedly when referring to God and even urges his disciples to pray to God as their Father in the Lord's Prayer.
I say all this to show just important the word "Father" is in the Bible and how important that men imitate their Father by learning to be good fathers, not only to their children, but to younger men in their church. It is one of the qualities I know I need to be already preparing for as I strive to grow into a man.
I find it interesting what Mark Driscoll writes on why he loves John Piper:

"He has a father’s heart. Unlike so many older men who are threatened by, competitive with, or critical of young men, I have repeatedly seen Dr. Piper have a father’s heart to encourage, exhort, and empower young men. The few times we’ve been able to sit down together have been incredibly transforming."

I not only see the father's heart in John Piper but I see the lacking Mark talks of in so many older men. As a young man (feeling like a boy still in many ways) I have been frustrated by the lack of older men with a father's heart to encourage young men in striving to put on spiritual manhood. I look around both inside my church and outside my church and see young men who are in desperate need of humble men who are willing to walk alongside them and help them grow. There are very few passionate fathers walking around who are looking to encourage, exhort, and empower young men. My earthly father has been wonderful and I don't know where I would be without his presence in my life but now that I am out of the house and living in a different city, my interaction with him is limited. I have a longing to be fathered. I want to be challenged by an older man to grow and take risks for God's glory! I have taken this longing to my heavenly Father and found him waiting there to take me in his arms and then walk through tough situations with me. He truly has been the best Father ever! He challenges me, loves me deeply, and calls me to takes risks for his glory (although He tries to assure me they aren't risks when He is involved!).

So in conclusion, I want to make sure I am continually bringing my longing to be fathered to God. I also want to make sure, in the midst of any frustation I may experience, that I never stop seeking encouragement and exhortation from older men in my life. God created us to be in relationship with each other and so God being a Father does not excuse men of being delinquent fathers to the younger men around them. The father's heart of John Piper points Mark Driscoll to the glory of the true Father. People see the glory of God when the role of fatherhood is lived out in imitation of God! It is not excusable then that we neglect this display of God's glory. We bring glory to God first by crying out to Him humbly as our Father and then by living out fatherhood and being strong and passionate fathers to those younger men in our lives. And so I want to learn to be a father, not only for any children I may have one day, but for the younger men out there who need someone to encourage them, exhort them, and continually point them to the perfect Father who will grow them and lead them ultimately to heaven. What a beautiful and inspiring thing when men display God's glory in this way!

"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying 'Abba! Father!' So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God."
Galatians 4:4-7