I Can Lift You Up

I can lift you up

Out of the crumbling fragments of older days,

Free you from the binding routine of past ways.

 

I can make all things new

But not without pain – pain in you.

 

I cannot give you the new

Unless you lose your hold

Of safe, trusted ways of old.

And between letting go and re-creation,

Loss and grief, give way to faith and hope

Engendering loving risk and patient exploration.

 

I cannot fill your hands

Until you empty them.

Then I can lift you up as I was lifted up

(adverse to it all, in loneliness, failure and pain,

On a cross of shame)

Into life’s fullness

 

The process is old, old as the fruit-bearing gain.

Why do you loiter (without clear intent)

In half filled houses of a land

Where homelessness is crying pain?

 

Why do you cling to serving yesterday’s need

When ther here and now anguish is for Love?

Why do you shore up the status quo,

Silent before inequality and wrong

When my fierce Word yearns to be heard.

 

Why do you patch, mend and prolong

What is past effective repair,

When dismantlement is the only way

To new possibilities demanding exploration?

 

Come, follow me, with open hands,

I will life you up and make you new.