Attention,
all you spiritual shoppers.
There are no discounts. No sale prices.
No fifty percent off summer specials, no bonus miles,
no pre-inventory clearance or back-to-school savings.
There are no shortcuts to faith, no money-back guarantees, no lifetime warranties or last-minute deals.
There are no wading pools. The depths are deep and
turbulence is standard. Every minute is your last.
If you want a God-soaked life, move to the margins.
Plant sequoias.* Find an eroded field and stake your
soul on its reclamation.
Synchronize your hope to an abandoned child’s heartbeat.
Set your sights on the interest from millennial investments.
Say o’er the clamor of all merchandizing madness:
Life is not had
by what is possessed,
but only by
what has been promised.**
©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Prov 29:18. *Line from Wendell Berry, “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front**Line from Walter Brueggemann, Living Toward a Vision.