Some folks are sure there’s no God there—
the one, of course, who never was.
Abandon proof of what you know to be imaginary.
Instead: Have you ever known love?
Have you ever felt the wash of a stream
flowing through you from the impossible?
Have you felt a surge of self-giving
not of your own making,
toward a neighbor, a lover, a child?
Has water ever flowed unexpectedly?
Have you ever followed a silent Voice,
from a dry rock drunk deeply?
Don’t argue over someone else’s fantasy.
Believe, not in the treasure in someone else’s field
but the gem you stumble on in your own.
What mystery allures, believe in that.
What deep root sustains, believe in that.
What births love in this world, believe in that.
You may doubt you have been provided for—
but are you here? Are you breathing? Are you—
your hands, your thoughts—not a work of wonder?
Ignore the idea that has nothing to do with you.
Turn to the One who draws you into wondering,
who gives you this thirst, who is this asking.
Drink plenty from this deep-welled strangeness.
Throw your life into the fire of love
and whatever catches fire, follow that,
and believe in the fire.
—January 22, 2018