My friends, there is some good news out there.

Our desert weather is changing. Mornings start out a little cooler and the day’s heat subsides a little earlier in the evening.
Though Covid-19 is spiking again, the vaccines and treatments are minimizing deaths and symptoms and fear.
It’s my birthday today and 44 doesn’t hurt too much. I have my wife and kids around me. I still get to play basketball. 😊 And Jesus is still speaking to me, teaching me, forming me, and loving me.

Way back when I was 43, I wrote a couple of poems that I want to share with you today:

Heavy Poem

O Jesus
Sometimes the world feels heavy
O Jesus
Sometimes the heavy gets me down
But Jesus
You know how the heavy feels
’Cause Jesus
You grew up in Nazareth town

Yes Jesus
I love when hope beats the heavy
But Jesus
It’s hard when heavy won’t back down
So Jesus
Could You come close to me
My Jesus
I could really use You now

To pick me up off this ground

And let Your mercy be found

Unity Poem

Unity. I mean the real stuff.
The non-homogenized, hard to realize,
Color blind, but not blind to color
Out of many, one, kind

The Every tribe, every tongue
Celebrating old as much as young
One blood, one race, one world
One baptism, one faith, one Lord, kind

Integration over Assimilation
Unforced but pursued, and pursued, and pursued
Knights around a round table
Knighted only by the content of their character

Exquisite Mutuality and Extraordinary Kinship
Many parts, but one body
Coordinated by submission
Mercy triumphing over judgment