Find Our Way Home

Field by snow covered field
I searched, but I-94 could not revelation yield
Its so easy to get lost in the smallest of towns
Listen to the whispers and reality upside-down:

Come and worship me, my udders hang low and not small
I am New Salem! The greatest heifer of them all!
Come and sing me praise! sing the sun, the snow, the sleet and rain:
I am Steele! The ever lovely long neck crane!
Come and bow low to me or I will defeat you, my foe
I am Jamestown! White Cloud! Albino Buffalo!

But in our rooms we learned to pray
to sing Your songs, to live the Way
Baptize us in the muddy Missouri!

Bismarck, our home, our peace, our grace
We first met You there, face to face
Baptize us in the muddy Missouri!

Burleigh County, I was lost and weak
You carried me there, You met my needs
Baptize me in the muddy Missouri!

(un)Pleasant Valley Siding/ Dickinson, ND pop. 213,000

Oh, the fatefully named for the painfully forgotten
Deeds from the past still hold them to the bottom
How can they forgive their fathers when they can't forgive themselves
Nightmares of a past, wished gone
PTSD won't move on
When the deepest wounds reopen under the moons or family gatherings

He said not to tell and now I couldn't if I tried
He said show me yours and I'll show you mine
It would be different if I could relive it,
but regrets are so unkind

How can they forgive their fathers when they can't forgive themselves
And how can they father's forgive themselves when they can't forgive their fathers

Dick-in-son: So fatefully named
Dick-in-son: The past remains
Dick-in-son: I hate my past
Dick-in-son: Will this nightmare pass?
Dick-in...

Son of God! We need You now!

White Butte, for the Near-Sighted

Three. Five. Zero. Six.
I can't keep climbing higher than this.
Some states of mind aspire for the Rockies
Why no subject to these fields of lesser feats.

White Butte! So majestic and Tall
Three thousand, five hundred and six feet to fall.
Listen for your name as the wind, it calls,
Objectively so, down on the small...
White Butte.

White Butte! for the fortunately framed,
The less-commonly named and the predictably tamed.
Three thousand, five hundred feet from the sea;
Just enough distance to kindly be...
Humbly known.

White Butte! So majestic and Tall
Three thousand, five hundred and six feet to fall.
Listen for your name as the wind, it calls,
Objectively so, down on the small...
White Butte.

The leaves rustle as the wind passes by,
Its time is fading, its end is nigh.

White Butte! So majestic and Tall
Three thousand, five hundred and six feet to fall.
Listen for your name as the wind, it calls,
Objectively so, down on the small...
White Butte.

Eucharist

What a monster I am!
And yet I sit and dine in the presence of Greatness
Are you blind?
Have You no eyes to see me?
My knuckles are red and my teeth drip with blood
I am not clean enough for this table, for this love!

“This is my body and blood, Do this in remembrance of me.”
But memory only serves my sin
Of lust and hate, greed and rape
Forgive me! Forgive me!
It was I who betrayed you on that night
My hammer, my spear stole your wings from flight
I dwell in darkness and shun the light
Forgive me! Forgive me!
And yet somehow in this You love me. You love me?
Your eyes fall upon me and though they are filled with pain
No condemnation do they bring
Hope and peace, the song they sing:
Son, though to the darkness you fled
And in lust burned red,
My love was there with you!
Always was and always will!
Love is the picture I paint and the canvas I spill.
Come Son, now have your fill!

So here I sit
Devouring this bloody meal
Great mercy and grace, this I steal
In remembrance of You

redeemed by the bottle

It's finally empty
Looking down, he sees no more left to drown
Nothing but a glass bottle; his worst fears come spiralling down
What of the money; what of his face
What of his family, he'll be a disgrace
"Oh God, what now?"

How can Great God let us fall?
How can Great God let us fall?
He wears his knees but his face still bruises
From life's pummeling and beating, choice he did not choose
Despair setting in
Faith is meager now
In frustration and rage he slams the bottle down
No alcohol spills, no drunken brawl ensues
Just shattered pieces of a life once pursued
Just shattered pieces reflect a forgotten lamb
Just broken pieces and a broken man

But from the shades, the sun peaks through
And reaches the broken glass, the bottle strewn
It reflects and refracts, a beautiful array
The sun transforms the broken to a glorious display
The Son transforms the broken to a glorious display

Dirt

From dust I come and to dust I will return
But I never evolved, I remain dirt
In selfishness I thought I controlled my own life
My deeds were my own, I didn't need to bring them to light
Now here I am, the dirt to be walked upon
Worthy of nothing, but to be forgotten from
the memory and life of my love

My selfishness and lust have held me down
Chained to the earth, I am the the ground
Walk on me. Stomp on me. I deserve it all.
With brokenness and regret, before you I fall
I'm sorry
I'm sorry
I'm sorry
With brokenness and regret, before you I fall

From dust I come and to dust I will return
But I never evolved, I remain dirt.

diety

Control and composure, the two deficits of my nature
My life rises and sets, but the sun keeps on…
“Why can’t I change” I cried
“I cannot win! The moon defines the tide, but I can’t even control my eyes
I AM NOT GOD!”
As the wind blows by, I sigh, and my shoe comes untied
…I am undone…
Make me a lily, neither will I labor or toil, unrighteous plans left to foil
You are the truth, the definition, and the question. I am unworthy of Your punctuation
I AM NOT GOD!
I AM NOT GOD!
I AM NOT GOD!
I am a man, fallen and fully dependent to be lifted off these dystrophic legs and carried
home.