On the Shoulder

I awoke on the shoulder, shaking- another tragedy narrowly avoided; another untimely ending over; another eternal beginning unconsummated.

I arose from the recliner and went in to the kitchen to make coffee.

_____________________

March 15, 2019

Turn Around

The sun is setting, another long day

And I’m still sitting in the same place

Waiting for the closing bell to ring,

But I can’t help feeling

I’m never going to hear a thing

As long as I keep facing this way.

I’m facing the wrong way

Looking out the back door

When you’re walking out the front-

Walking out the front door

Before I can do a thing.

But I can turn around, Baby.

Baby, I can turn around.

I can turn it around.

And the shutters block the western heat

But the shadows burn the floor.

We can’t see the other’s eyes

So we talk like nothing’s wrong-

We live like we’re alone.

I was thinking it had been a long time

Since we lived like we meant it, we've been

Thinking it’s always the wrong time,

But I can’t help feeling

We’re never going to mean anything

As long as we keep thinking this way.

We’re thinking the wrong way

Hanging on the dark words

When we could be talking in the light-

Talking in the light, now-

Baby, we can’t do this thing.

But we can turn around, Baby.

Baby, we can turn around.

We can turn it around.

Baby, we can do this thing.

___________________________________

March 5, 2014

Open Up the Doors for Makenna

Here’s the church, here’s the steeple

Open up the doors and see all the people

                                          

She was little when she heard the story

She was bitty, head high to Bodi dog,

When her father put her hands together

And her mother sang the song.

Here’s the church, here’s the steeple

Open up the doors and see all the people

Here's the parson going upstairs,

And here he is saying his prayers.

She was ready, once she heard His story,

For His pity, His dying for the dogs,

So she gathered all her friends together,

And the Spirit sang the songs.

Here’s the church, here’s the steeple

Open up the doors and see all the people

Close the doors and let them pray

Open the doors and they have all gone away

She made the people around her happy

She, not so much, just praying for a day

When her faith would pull her life together

And her troubles - drive away.

But sometimes life just doesn’t work that way,

There’s more to it than that - and sometimes less;

Good friends will spend their best days together

Even when their best nights are an awful mess.

She did.

Here’s the church, here’s the steeple

Open up the doors and see all the people

Then one day she saw herself so plainly,

A child of God, undisguised, bare and bald;

She was seeing in the mirror dimly

Before she even turned twenty years old

In dark glass she saw the Artist’s delight,

Not in the smiling face the world expects,

But in the scars that held her life together -

Endless love hanging ‘round her neck.

Here’s the church, here’s the steeple

Open up the doors and see all the people

Close the doors and let them pray

Open the doors and they have all gone away

She went to the church and she looked inside

She saw pianos, organs, and a choir

She heard the angels all sing together

And she knew that He was there.

She never looked back, she just ran ahead

Into her life like a kid at the fair;

The saints were there, they all sang together;

She saw His heaven there.

She did.

Here’s the church, here’s the steeple

Open up the doors and see all the people

________________________________________________

Based on Testimony by Makenna Loerwald

(http://butwehadheart.wordpress.com/my-story/testimony/)

James A. DeLong

February 19, 2014

What Can Flesh Do to Me (Psalm 56)

March 2, 2014 - This is a song based on Psalm 56 (ESV); really just a personalized version of the Psalm.

Be kind to me, O God, Be kind to me

For a Man is stepping hard down on me.

All day long there’s a bad man pressing me,

Pressing me, all day long

He’s oppressing me, pushing down on me.

He’s a proud One, this one stepping on me;

He’s not alone – no, more than one is after me.

O Lord, O Lord, they want me dead.

But

When I am afraid,

I put my trust in you.

In God, in God, whose word I praise,

In God I trust; I won’t be afraid.

What can flesh do to me?

What can flesh do to me?

All day long they torture me – all day long

They think of naught but how to do me wrong-

Nothing’s in their minds but doing wrong –

Doing wrong in their minds,

They stir up trouble, hanging around my town,

Watching where I’m going, waiting ‘til I’m gone,

They’re out to get me and I know it can’t be long

O Lord, O Lord, they want my life.

Are you going to let them do this?

Let them take me and go?

I know you love justice, so

You will stop them, I know –

I know.

But

When I am afraid,

I put my trust in you.

In God, in God, whose word I praise,

In God I trust; I won’t be afraid.

What can flesh do to me?

What can flesh do to me?

Oh Lord, you have kept count of my tossings;

You kept track of my wanderings, all my crossings;

You put my tears in your bottle when I wept;

When I wept in the desert

You dropped my tears into the jar that you kept

Inside my heart – you count them in your book.

Please now check the record, just check your book

Oh Lord, Oh Lord, please find my name.

Yes, Lord! Find my name in your book!

And when you do,

Please open me up, pour them all out –

These tears you held so close;

Recount them all, cry Misery aloud,

And my fears - just let them go,

For my enemies will turn back

In the day when I call you,

You will surely stop this sore attack!

But

This I know,

That God is for me.

In God, whose word I praise,

In the Lord, whose word I praise,

In God I trust; I won’t be afraid.

What can man do to me?

What can man do to me?

So dear God, I will keep my vows to you;

Oh Lord, I give you all my thanks, for you

Have delivered my soul from death – yes you,

Yes you alone

Kept my feet from falling that I might too

Walk with God in the light of life, and soon

I will have no reason to worry. It’s true!

Oh Lord, you won’t let me die.

And

When I am afraid,

I put my trust in you.

In God, in God, whose word I praise,

In God I trust; I won’t be afraid.

What can flesh do to me?

What can flesh do to me?