Snapshots and Synapses

Seedlings sneak forth from the snow-dampened earth     Winter's sigh fades in the the wind Memories of seasons and years where once planted     a mother, a father, a mentor, a friend. Joyful anxiety! Cautious -- desirous --     the season has come; it is here! Petals shouting brightly! Blossoms sweetly singing --     the season has come!  It is hear! Time hallowed hopes of the summer arrive:     Exhultation! Rejoicing abounds! Songs understood from time-ripened growth     Climbing earnestly up towards the clouds Squirrels joust playfully, still slightly warefully     in warm well-known days with the sun. The landscape's familiar, horizon's peculiar     in warm well-known days with the sun. Now the statuesque trees of an earlier summer     begin a new season of change And stores from the harvest of meadows and forest  ...

“Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!” shouted the people of Jerusalem as the King of Glory rode into the city. Here was the Promised One they had long awaited! Yet a week later, they shouted a different cry: “Crucify Him!!” Victorious King or Hideous Scoundrel… the heart vacillates between beats. Are we any different from the people who laid down palms for Jesus? I’m not. My heart seems to work like a tide that ebbs and flows: one moment wholly devoted to Him and the next moment focused on my own selfish desires. The spiritual life is a constant battle, fighting through strategies and tactics toward victory, where any tactic that does not support the prime strategy is doomed to failure. No matter how noble a tactic may sound, it will be twisted to support the Adversary’s strategy if we lose sight of the primary objective that has been given to us: draw close to God. Like the rich young ruler who asked Jesus what he needed to “do”, we desire a set of tactics so we can heroically wi...