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Eligibility Requirements

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Eligibility Requirements

James 1:22-27

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What does the Lord

Ask of us?

Many things, I think

That Noah build an ark

That Abraham sacrifice

His son upon an altar

Made for animals

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That Rahab should save

The spies of Israel

In Canaan

That Mary should conceive

Without her affianced

And then give birth

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That Cain should confess

That sinners should confess

That we should be

Doers and not hearers only

Of the word

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That we should seek justice

And do justice

That we should love God

And each other

Be generous with enemies

With material and with prayer

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I’d like to say it’s easy

As salvation is

Through grace

And belief

But frankly it’s the start

Of a grown-up life of faith

In which there should be joy

And humor, too,

And if there isn’t

Then we have been told

In someone’s catechism

Something wrong

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C L Couch

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James is a brief, epistolary work in the Christian New Testament.

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Photo by Taras Chernus on Unsplash

“I am from Ukraine, there is a war going on in my country now. Your help is more important than ever.”

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the blast of war

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the blast of war

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God

grant not my will

but yours

yours and mind when

we’re allied

but if it’s you or me

better to be you

and yours

I know

I’ll be there, too

that sometimes frustrates

when I want something

all my own

and maybe

you would not agree

all the way

better for your will be done

and mine left out

you’ll remember me

and several billion

while caretaking

all who are asleep

a world that’s cracking

you will let it crack

split into pieces

that we insist upon

who says

my will be done?

yours will keep the planet

and humanity

behold what

our will has done

and save us

by your modest will

gentle

or ferocious

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the quiet desert

and the storm at sea

are yours

watch over these

and the tame or wild places

of the mind

the heart

and spirit

we should ally

keep us from all tyrannies

with a will

for freedom

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c l couch

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photo by jonathan bowers on unsplash

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Shadowlands

(x = space)

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Shadowlands

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Plato

C. S. Lewis

My hand by

The computer light

Shadows with shadows,

I suppose

With something firmer

On the other side

That could be relied on

For an eternity

Something waiting

Something inspiring

An ideal

A world of ideals

That’s what we learned

In school

So what have we here?

Which world shimmers

For the other

Though we presume

The other world’s better?

What do we sense here?

What do we make?

What lasts?

We have our treasures

And we try to keep them

We use guards

We have alarms

Things might fade anyway

Or break

And we keep making

Stockpiling art

With care

In both kinds of caves

Like those who aren’t so well-

Obsessed with money

Or better

With a hope for all

The way we might stockpile food

And why not

Against the day

Except for exigent hunger

(there should be enough

for both)

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Yet if they’re right

We’ll have it all again

Art and food

Anything of profit

By virtue,

Perfect there

And permanent

And with ourselves, perhaps,

Polished and redeemed

As on this side

We sometimes polish

Precious metal with

Satisfaction after

That self-effacing

Might be and become

A shimmering

Evangelism:

Grand art, you see,

And easy,

Arduous science

For both

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C L Couch

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the verse alludes to Plato’s allegory of the cave

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the title is a term that is a metaphor for mortal life

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Photo by Jed Owen on Unsplash

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Humility Blues

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Humility Blues

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(verse)

Virtue’s gone away

Vanity is here to stay

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(chorus)

O, Christians, I got the

Humility blues

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(verse)

Cool cats keep it humble

Don’t want to rumble, stumble

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(chorus)

O, Christians, I got the

Humility blues

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(bridge)

Vanity’s a bummer

Winter, fall, or summer

Wake up into spring

Humility’s the thing

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(one more time)

Cool cats keep it humble

Don’t want to rumble, stumble

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(bring it home)

O, people,

We got the humility blues

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C L Couch

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(I misread the title to something as “Humility Blues”—what the title was supposed to be I can’t recall)

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Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash

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right-angle shadows on the moon

right-angle shadows on the moon

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before the multiverse

occurred

the universe is infinite

all possibilities

here

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there might be variations

upon our everything

slipped

through dimensions

frosting on creators’ cakes

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a calculator without ending

solving pi

a Rubik’s cube offered of

galactic proportions

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the other side of black holes

is an upside-down that we get used to

once we’re there

where Amelia Earhart

and the crew of the Mary Celeste

found solace

in their time

and what is time

when only numbered four or five

in a mult-dimensional count?

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here we have questions

there

there are the answers if

upside-down

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go far enough

to find the portals

to what

might be

the multi-elsewheres

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c l couch

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20 july 1969

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photo by nasa on unsplash

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And, But, Or, Nor, For, Yet, So

(x = space)

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And, But, Or, Nor, For, Yet, So

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What do I do

When God is gone?

A question I don’t have to ask

Because it doesn’t happen

God doesn’t go away

I do

I go away when I want

To think of someone else

Of something that I want

That I shouldn’t have

When I need

Or presume to need

Enough to bump out God

From my awareness,

Which qualifies the need

As something else

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This is straightforward:

I choose to have God in my life

Closer to me, anyway

Since God is there

Creating

Maintaining

Weeping or laughing at

What we do

Preparing for Parousia

Yet

Cherishing each moment

The now we have

We linear beings

Meaning for us

It’s a saving moment

To a saving moment

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God is close

God is inherent

In electrons

And cellular nuclei

God will become more obvious

As we wish

As we choose

As we ask it so

(the asking’s prayer)

The devil has many ways

To snare us away

It is agenda

Of the kind that pushes will

And understanding

Inside a frame that illustrate

An attitude

Against people and the

Environment

The Earth we stand or glide

Or rest upon

All of which, the devil says,

Is unimportant

When favoring

Profit

Unhuman strategies

(inhumane)

That only matter as

Winning so that the rest

Are losers

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Who is lost?

The burden’s hard

The burden’s easy

It’s paradox

Of faith

Of belief in God who’s only known

Through evidence unseen

Who wins a case through this?

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Such contradictions

Such opposites

The world we love must be eschewed

If we would live, there is first

The inevitability of dying

Sheesh

No thank you

Or thank you

Our will to embrace

To choose

To live in love

With the good in everything

With faith

And hard belief that has gentle edges

In what we show each other

(as in manifest)

In what we sense

And how we deal

With everyone

With everything

By which and in which

A spirit accompanies

For good

For upbuilding

For faith

And, yes, for love

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We live in hope

That God is there

That God is there when we return

Or when we turn around

In attitude

Repentance

Sorry and a new embrace

Of faith

Gove love this Earth

And the extraordinary creatures

That you’ve made

That is each of us

Not that we are perfect

Or perfectly anything

But in everyone

And everything

The three remain close by

The three remain close by

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C L Couch

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By Finoskov – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=109525350

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benedictus

(x = space)

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benedictus

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we could be pleased

with what we had

and sad for what is missed

we could love what there is

let go the hate for

what was taken

who took it

we could love with a love

not pure, because there’s always

imperfection

we could correct and sigh

sigh and correct over faults

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we could love

because alternatives shall drive us

into places where

no one really wants to go

or stay

more so, we could come home

to the dwelling of our hearts

and smarter thoughts

inside the land that God more fully made

that shall remain

when the rest

the doubt, the pain, even scorn

shall fall away

while love remain

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c l couch

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hoto by savvas kalimeris on unsplash

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Our Town

(x = space)

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Our Town

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If it were Our Town

Someone might say

Robb Elementary School

Uvalde

Texas

USA

The Earth

The mind of God

Who did not go in?

Everyone

Except those set there already

Children

Teachers

Targets

The few outside who wanted

To go in

Were kept away

An issue of control?

Of quieting bureaucracy?

It really wasn’t so bad

In there?

I know it’s unknown ‘til the time

What we would do

I’d be terrified

And I might count on those with

Uniforms and guns

To lead the way

Until they didn’t

We have to remember all of this

I’m sorry, but we do

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C L Couch

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More than 350 responding police officers took a “lackadaisical approach” to the Uvalde school massacre while accused gunman Salvador Ramos, who had never fired a gun before, killed 21 people, according to a preliminary report from the Texas House released Sunday.

Two teachers and 19 students were gunned down inside Robb Elementary School on May 24 while police, armed with weapons and protective material, lingered outside the school, then in the hallway for 77 minutes.

In that time, Ramos, 18, laid waste to joint classrooms, firing more than 100 times from a military style AR-15 rifle.

. . .

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-uvalde-school-shooting-robb-elementary-massacre-ramos-police-20220717-uclqp44oknh3tozaqrnp3rqsde-story.html?utm_source=onesignal&utm_medium=notification&utm_campaign=2022-07-17-Egregious-poor-

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“You know the old chestnut…all roads lead to Uvalde.”

(image and caption by) formulanone from Huntsville, United States – Uvalde! Uvalde!, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77144919

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Our Town, the play by Thornton Wilder

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The Impoverished

(x = space)

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The Impoverished

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It is another day

To wake up into misery

Sometimes a vivid

Dream

Takes me to

A place that is not

So spectacular but

I want to live there

And I wake up

And I’m here

I wake to the gray skies

Of war

Or my child is

Still sick

Or my child is gone

My children

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There is my own pathology

It hurts

And there is no promise

Of change for the better

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I wake into many

Who have problems

And they seep

Or crash into awareness

I have no money

Or my clothes are poor

My shoes don’t wrap around

My feet

So I have trouble moving

And I’m seen first

For the problems that I have

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I’m seen first

For the problems that I have

That’s how my friends know me

Or my family

Or anyone

First, I am the sad one

Or the needy one

The one with problems

I am an individual

Also a family

Or a nation

I grow to hate waking up

Like this

I grow to hate waking up

Can someone make

The day better?

Can I?

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A song could name this

But is no breath

For singing

There is no cause

Or there is

And I forget

It’s been too long

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I could say, Help me

But I don’t know how

Sometimes it’s

Antagonistic

The responses that I get

When I used to ask

Mostly it’s apathy

With closed pockets

I never get close to,

Which is fine

I don’t want your pockets

I want my own

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I want what I used to have

Or maybe never had

I want what I need

And a little more

So I am ready

When I hear of

Need

Someone

A family

Or a nation

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To give out of what I have

And a little more

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C L Couch

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Photo by Peter Herrmann on Unsplash

The Other Way

published 2 hours ago

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