letters to an [atheist]

I wish you could see the beautiful things [of God]
you who have eyes for beauty
to see in a ragged people, hope, not just doubt
in an inadequate rhetoric, relationship, not just failure
in the stains, the very wonder of the stars,
not just the 'senseless.'

I wish you could recognize the patterns [of God]
you who recognize the fullness of the moment
to revel in the subversive within the frail
in the incessant nature of a tide that rails against the sand to quicken all,
in spite of it all
just to create the opportunity to live.

If you saw it, you would recognize your own strength
(and if you did, would it earn your respect?)
the power of your own determination
the insidiousness of your own invitation
the combative nature of your own pursuit
the way you bite into life
you would taste, indeed, that intoxicating adventure
you have a taste for.

I wish you could delight with me [in him]
because you uniquely could delight
in the ironies that you have touched with your own hand
the very proof for which you asked and never saw
you encountered
and were seduced.

If you could stand in the tension for just a moment
(and if you did, would it break you?)
and feel the excruciating pleasure, the exhilarating pain
of being broken by and expanded in your capacity to love
to live, to experience,
and to be so satiated that it is like death itself
but death that is new life.

So There

I entered, crying;
 I shall go out rejoicing.

 I embraced the first seasons of my life silently;
one day I shall never stop talking.

I will talk and tell stories and prattle and ask and
 no one will quiet me -

 Not the orderlies or the nurses
or the other Alzheimer’s patients,

 not even the grouchy old lady sharing my room.

The Sacrilege

You won't be the first to call me heathen
To pat my head as if I just don't understand
because of my poor, weak, "woman-mind"
because of my misled and deceitful heart
If man is the head
man ordained me
so I am in perfect submission
but you don't want man to be the head
when that man is in disagreement with your man

Would you appeal to me, then, to submit to Christ instead?
I appeal to you to submit to Christ first
As I submit to Christ first and foremost
And answer to Him as His servant
And after Christ to those he has placed in authority over me, man and woman alike
Just as those Christ has placed under my authority submit to me
Just as it is written "submit one to another"
equal in power and in negotiation

because there is no man, no woman, no Greek, no Roman, no Jew or Gentile
In God's sight
He will use them all as He sees fit and in accordance with his Kingdom
For this vessel He makes for rich purposes
and this one He makes for poor
Will you, the clay, look to the Potter and question that He has the right
to make one thing for glory and another for destruction?

You won't be the first to denounce my Christianity
he did as well - when I walked away from his abuse, his lies, his cheating
he did not like that I did not fall under his control anymore either.