Tangled Up With Me – a poem

The Total Inability (or Total Depravity) of graceless human nature should not be difficult for us to grasp.  One glance at the nightly news plainly reveals that all human beings – from Hollywood to Afghanistan – struggle unsuccessfully to find spiritual meaning and satisfaction.  As the Preacher in Ecclesiastes makes clear, the heart of every person is filled with a desire for “eternity” (Ecc 3:11) and yet, if God should leave us in our graceless

I Descend into the Beauty – a video poem

I wrote the following poem from the perspective of a dying maple leaf. Several years ago I was driving along Interstate 81 heading toward Roanoke, Virginia. It was autumn and the leaves were absolutely gorgeous. I pulled my car over to the side of the road to enjoy a breathtaking view that overlooked a valley filled with white farmhouses and green pastures. The surrounding trees were brilliantly splotched with every color that autumn could possibly render. As I stood there drinking in the scene, I noticed a maple tree on the side of the ridge beside me. Its head was stretching in the wind. The tree grew out sideways over the valley and as a result it had lost almost all of its leaves. I took special note of one bright yellow leaf that hung on tight, shivering all alone in the wind. That leaf held fast when almost every other leaf had given way, falling hundreds of feet into the valley below.  I wrote this poem with that leaf in mind. I cling to life.  Just like that little leaf. I hang on with the vain hope that I will live forever, scared to death of the “undiscover’d country, from whose bourn no traveler returns.”  Yet, a day will come, sooner than I realize, when the Autumn Daystar (the beloved Savior – Jesus Christ) will call me to let go of that which was never mine.  As that day moves closer, I am learning how to die – how to bear the Cross, how to die to myself, how to die to sin, idolatry, selfishness, and anger. I am learning to surrender to the call of Christ’s sacrificial love.  I am learning to surrender to the music that will one day sound my departure from this life.  Until then, may Christ prepare me for that day, so that I may release my grip with joy and worship, singing “Autumn Daystar, bid me come.”

Wishes and Dreams – a poem by Tim Melton

Have you ever thought about the words to the Walt Disney theme song?  ‘When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are.  When you wish upon a star, your dreams come true.’  I believe that those who trust in Jesus have set their faith in a dream that will come true.  When we, with tiny ‘mustard seed’ faith, set our hope in Christ, we will continually be amazed at the overwhelming response of our God.  In the end, I don’t believe that wishes start with us at all.  Even faith is a gift that comes from God.  It is God’s faith/wish that germinates in our hearts, at first a small seed that, almost without our knowing it, slowly grows into a huge tree of life, reminding us that there is something more.    When Christ takes residence in our lives, His work is so subtle, yet it is forceful.  He plants Himself in the middle of our barren lives, and over and over, almost out of nowhere, when all hope seems lost, He proclaims that our faith/wish in Him has not been in vain.  He is with us!  Saving us from sin.  Plucking us from despair.  Cheering our hearts.  Filling us with love.  And the power of this inviolable faith/wish endures – filling us with hope, encouraging us to keep trusting in Christ, knowing that He will rescue us again and again until we finally behold Him face to face.  This grand moment – when our faith becomes sight – is a wish that will one day be gloriously realized…

and so, we never stop dreaming.

“Benediction”

Benediction (Tim Melton, May 2011)

I will Bless you, I will
We can do this easy,
Or we can do this hard
Either way, I will Bless you, and Keep you, and I will make my face to shine upon you

If you come unto me,
I will wash you and dress you,
I will hug you and kiss you,
I will put a ring on your finger
and I will wrap you in a fine, white Robe of linen,
For I will bless you. I will
I will Bless you, and Keep you, and I will make my face to shine upon you

If you should leave me, I will come after you
and If you try to run from me, I will tackle you
and I will break your legs, so that you are unable to walk

For, I will Bless you, and Keep you, and I will make my face to shine upon you
and If you should try to crawl away from me,
I will break your arms and I’ll wrap my arms around you
And throw you around my neck, and carry you where you have no wish to go
For, I will Bless you, and Keep you, and I will make my face to shine upon you

And if you struggle against my grip of loving grace
I will break your stiff-necked pride and lift your chin to see my face
For I will Bless you
And If you curse me and revile me,
I will overwhelm you with singing
and I will Bless you

If your heart should despise me
I will melt that heart of stone with the Cross, with my grace, with my heavenly tears
I will Bless you, and Keep you, and I will make my face to shine upon you and give you peace

Hear me.  Listen to me.
We can do this easy,
or we can do this hard
But know this truly –

I will Bless you
I will Bless you
I will Bless you, and Keep you, and I will make my face to shine upon you
For you are mine
So,

“May the LORD bless you and keep you,
May He make His face to shine radiantly upon you and be gracious to you
May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”
Numbers 6:24-26

Valley of Vision – “God: The Everything in everything”

God: The Everything in everything
The Valley of Vision, “God The All” – Pg. 4 (my paraphrase)

Listen to the audio by clicking the play button below:
Christ You are My Everything – Valley of Vision, p.4

Made to Fly – A Poem by Callie Melton

This is a poem written by my daughter – Callie Melton.  She calls it “Made to Fly”.  Whenever I read it, it makes me think of heaven.  My heart yearns to dwell in that place where earth and sky are one, where the curse has been removed, where our doubts no longer master us,…where our faith has become sight and we dwell together with our God in the garden that he has prepared for us.

Click “Read the rest…” to read the poem.

I Descend Into the Beauty – A Poem by Tim Melton

I wrote the following poem from the perspective of a dying maple leaf. Several years ago I was driving along Interstate 81 heading toward Roanoke, Virginia. It was the fall of the year and the leaves were absolutely gorgeous. I pulled my car over to the side of the road to enjoy a breathtaking view that overlooked a valley filled with white farmhouses and green pastures. The surrounding trees were brilliantly splotched with every color that Autumn could possibly render. As I stood there drinking in the scene, I noticed a maple tree on the side of the ridge beside me. Its head stretching in the wind, the tree grew out sideways over the valley and as a result it had lost almost all of its leaves. In fact, I took special note of one bright yellow leaf that shivered in the wind. That leaf had hung fast when almost every other had fallen to its’ death, floating down hundreds of feet into the valley. I wrote this poem with that leaf in mind. I, like that little leaf, cling to life. I hang on with the vain hope that I will live forever, scared to death of the undiscover’d country, from whose bourn no traveler returns. Yet, that day will come, sooner than I realize, when the Autumn Daystar (the Autumn Sun/Christ) will call me to let go of that which was never mine. When that day arrives, I must surrender to the music that sounds my departure from this world. May Christ prepare me for that day, so that I may joyously release my grip on this life. “King Jesus, bid me come.”

Matthew 16:25 – For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” 

Click below to hear the poem.

Click “Read the rest of this entry” to read the lyrics to the poem.

I Have A Gospel Dream – Revisiting Dr. King’s Famous Address

I am a child of the civil rights movement. I grew up as a minority white kid in inner city Atlanta, Georgia during the volatile season of the late 1960s and early 70s. The desegregation movement sent me, along with a hand full of white kids, to the previously all black Elementary School known as C.D. Hubert. My sixth grade year, on the first day of class, Coretta Scott King, Dr. Martin Luther King’s wife, spoke at C.D. Hubert to encourage us to embrace one another and to remember the reason her husband died. We ended that meeting as we did every all-school meeting, with students and teachers, black and white, raising their hands together and singing in on voice – “We shall overcome”

However, as a ‘minority’ white kid, I sometimes became the face of the enemy. In 1977 I attended a brand new school named Martin Luther King Middle. The week that the miniseries “Roots” was aired on television, I was attacked five times by angry black kids who blamed me for American slavery. I also suffered at the hands of a few racist teachers in the days when it was legal to spank children who forgot to finish their homework. My spankings tended to be much worse. In fact, one beating was so severe that it left me with deep bruises on my legs and backside.  Yet, somehow, in the midst of all of that drama, I avoided becoming a racist. I didn’t hate black people. Somehow I was able to see that the major differences in people were not determined by the color of their skin, as Dr. King so eloquently puts it in his “I Have a Dream” speech, but by the content of their character. In the world that I grew up in, there were mean and evil and broken black people, and there were mean and evil and broken white people.

Favorite Lewis Quote #8 – The Land of Safe

“Safe? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.” – The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

Once upon a time…far, far away, there existed a kingdom without a King, where everyone was safe. In this Land of Safe, no one ever grew sick or ill. And no one ever died. The people were never hungry, never desperate, never thirsty, never sad. In this Land of Safe, always beautiful, never ugly; always full, never empty, the lonely people lived – Safe from the pain of war; Safe from the pain of anger; Safe from the pain of loss…Safe from the pain of love.

For in its essence, the idolatry of safety is nothing more than the desire to be free from the suffering of love. And so this land – safe, secure, happy, and comfortable – was a land without the dangers of compassion. The people all understood that hiding was the only way to be truly safe and so safety stayed in fashion. They were kind but never close. They were nice but never near. During the day they encased themselves in cubicles. At night they locked their doors and hid inside their fear. When they traveled, they sealed themselves inside moving metal boxes. They talked to one another, but only through machines. They worked safe jobs. Washed in safe bathrooms. Kept their money in safe banks. They Hid inside safe houses, that were built inside safe walls, surrounded by safe fences, and locked inside safe gates. Marriage? Far too dangerous; Babies? Much too perilous; Families? Way too hazardous…inside the Land of Safe.

World Changer – A Poem by Tim Melton

I cannot change the World
but it is in my Blood to Sweat and Toil and Try
To Work and Groan and Strain until the day I Die
Yet in these fires of futile striving, amid the anguish of my cries,
I find the World is much greater than my feeble fight to make it free.
So in defeat, with head bowed low, in broken pride and humble dust,
I recognize that God has made me not
to Change the World and make it just,
but instead
He’s made the World…
to change me.

Crazy Bill: The Gerasene Demoniac Revisited – a poem by Tim Melton

In Mark 5:1-20 we have the beautiful and horrific account of Jesus’ love for a man who is possessed by a band of demons that defiantly refer to themselves as “legion”. Out of all the stories in the Bible, I feel most kinship with this one. Like the Gerasene Demoniac, Jesus has rescued me – a crazed, exiled, sweaty toothed, mad man. He has called me from the grave, given me a new name, a new life, and a new hope. Daily, he cleans me, dresses me, clothes me, and he puts me in my right mind. My love for this account and my identification with it, eventually led me to poetically revisit the passage from the perspective of the madman – whom I refer to as William. Because I feel that poetry is better heard than read, I recorded the poem with an instrumental soundtrack (nod to Braveheart). You can read the poem simply clicking the link below. Enjoy.

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Stream By Clicking Here:

Download Audio Here (Left Click to Play/Right Click to Download):
https://sacrosanctgospel.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/crazy-bill-revisited.mp3

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