ann kiemel

i read the line of a song:
"could we live like Your grace is
stronger than all our faults and failures...
so could we live like this and shine in all
the world?" (matt rodman)

it is evening.
car lights are turning on.
stores are lit from the outside.
i can look out and see the breeze
bending limbs. and every day,
at its close, i've been working on not
focusing on things i didn't get done today,
but on the one or two or three things i DID
accomplish.

as i kneel at night,
i'm painfully aware that it has not been
a perfect day. that i have sinned in word or
thought. that i've not taken the debt collectors
on,and once and for all, settled my payment
plans and pushed them off my back. i know
i could have given more. run harder. faster.

oh, the Blood of Jesus.
it covers all the things left undone.
forgives all the discrepencies. washes
away our fears and self-loathing and doubts.

"what can wash away my sins?
nothing but the Blood of Jesus.
what can make me whole again?
nothing but the Blood of Jesus.

"how precious is the flow
that washes white as snow....no
other fount i know...nothing but the Blood
of Jesus." (old hymn of the church)

each night,
may we all forgive ourselves for
all the shortcomings. for all the things we did
in earlier years that we wish we could undo. may
we remember we are all strapped with jagged, glaring
failures and humanity, and may we lay it all down
at the feet of Jesus. just lay it all down.
roll our burdens off our shoulders, and lay them down.