cracks in everything

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That's how the light gets in.

Anthem 
 (click to download 3meg mp3 file)
by Leonard Cohen 

The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be.
Ah the wars they will
be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
bought and sold
and bought again
the dove is never free.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

We asked for signs
the signs were sent:
the birth betrayed
the marriage spent
Yeah the widowhood
of every government --
signs for all to see.

I can't run no more
with that lawless crowd
while the killers in high places
say their prayers out loud.
But they've summoned, they've summoned up
a thundercloud
and they're going to hear from me.

You can add up the parts
but you won't have the sum
You can strike up the march,
there is no drum
Every heart, every heart
to love will come
but like a refugee.

It's like a song. Now, I can hold a note for a long time… actually I can hold a note forever. But eventually that's just noise. It's the change we're listening for. The note coming after, and the one  after that. That's what makes it music." 

- Lorne (Angel the Series) 

 

I regret nothing because human perfection is divine imperfection. If one never transgressed, then one's goodness and perfectionism run the danger of becoming one's greatest transgression. The image of perfection and purity evolves into a massive arrogant deity, which seeks preservation at the expense of one's personal growth and spiritual development.
- Inas Younis
www.muslimwakeup.com

Do you regret, Lord, coming back
from death to life in this imperfect world?
The tomb was quiet, peaceful, past
all fear and fret, past pain, remorse, regret, 
a blessed blank beyond the chance of hurt. 

They didn't even know you, even those
who claimed to love you most - two on the road 
to Emmaus, Mary weeping in the garden…
though Judas knew he couldn't believe it true
a main who killed his God could hope for pardon.

No man has greater love - you said it yourself - 
dares die for friends; but was it worth it?
Perhaps it takes more courage to turn to hate and kill
piling our pain on your intolerable burden.

And are you glad, Lord, coming back to find 
refinements or advanced technology
enabling Cain to slay a million times - 
science plus skill converts to overkill - 
blasting men's lives and national economies.

So after death your disappointment must 
be sharp and bitter. Can you now forgive
our violence to men and apathy towards you - 
our love of pelf and even more of self?
Lord, you chose life - now teach us how to live!

- Kenneth Wadsworth



Just Suppose

Just suppose we're not a fallen people at all,
but people on the way up;
not caterpillars that once were butterflies,
but actually the other way round.

Just suppose we have this wonderful God
who is so much in love with us,
He has drawn us out of the animal kingdom,
giving us the divine spark of His love
to grow into a fire within us and eventually
bring us to oneness with Him.

Just suppose this wonderful God
so totally, crazily in love with us,
first becomes one with His beloved,
taking on a human likeness
to join us in our growing pains,
suffering everything we might suffer,
to show us the truth of the empty chrysalis.

And just suppose that our words of fear
like disobedience and judgement and condemnation,
belong not to a God who is total Love
but to a half-grown people
truing to explain their incompleteness.

Suppose that the only ultimate truth
is that God is the source
and destiny of every soul.
Suppose that everything we are,
all our light and shade, our sin and celebration,
belongs wholly in God's love.
Suppose no one is ever lost to that love.
Wouldn't that be Good News?

- Joy Cowley