Wayside Pulpit

Real Savior

I want a savior that really died,
not the half-assed man who
got the gift of a second chance.

I want a savior that
knows, really knows,
about the
permanence of death.

I want a savior that
was born and died.
Died.
Died.

I want a savior that
knows long term suffering,
not the 12 hours
nailed to a piece of wood.

I want a savior
that has slowly felt a body
fall and fall apart
over and over,
a body that has lost everything
down to speech itself.

I want a savior that
is still buried in the tomb
covered in cloth
aging oils
rotting.
Because then -
that savior,
my savior,
would really know
what it meant to be alive.

The One Called Lazarus

A caregiver in motion
he travels the countryside,
stoically healing
without much emotion
(or at least the story goes).

He has seen death, blindness, leprosy, demons -
blood that didn’t stop flowing.
Yet he was never really moved
until him.
That man somehow connected to him,
connected enough so he could say
from miles away,
he is dead, not sleeping.

He arrives too late.
But they all believe,
really believe that he
can wake him.
And this is what he wanted
Isn’t it?
To be known as the man,
the man who can heal
So they all will know
that he is -
The One.

Tears fall around.
And he looks down on
hands that had lifted paralysis away,
hands that had changed water into wine,
hands that had opened the eyes of the blind.
And he realizes that it does not matter
if they see - The One.
He simply knows he loves him.
And he weeps.

His tears are for him,
Not for them.
And they move his heart
from inside his robe -
to his death clothes.
And he no longer cares
if they believe or not.
He just wants to heal
to heal
and make the dead man walk.

Meaning of Work

"Lucas E. Nikkel, a Dartmouth graduate, wants to be a doctor, but for now he is teaching eighth-grade chemistry at a middle school in North Carolina, one of nearly 2,200 new members of Teach for America.

I'm looking at medical school, and everybody says taking time off first is a good idea," he said. "I think I'm like a lot of people who know they want to do something meaningful before they start their careers." (NY Times)

Yes, let us do something meaningful BEFORE we start our careers, which, appear, in this context to be non-meaningful. Such a shame we'll spend most of our lives in our careers - most of our days doing non-meaningful work.

What a change it would be if careers were undertaken because they were "meaningful," rather than for all the other reasons they are undertaken