Hi friends,
It's a longer-than-usual post... but i hope it's rewarding :-)
You can also find this at willow creek association blog: www.wcablog.com
zulu time
06:00 hours:
Zulu time
the sun emerges predictably red
on the horizon
start the clock on the day
and we humans
emerge from our stasis,
our sleep
and we take up the
responsibility
of free will
mostly
unaware that we are
inexorably
connected
one to another
in invisible pathways
jetstreams
shipping lanes
prevailing winds
genetic strains
climate patterns
tidal pulls
the mysterious inroads of prayer
connected:
when one is lost, another
grieves
when one is hurt, another bleeds
06:01
this day is in our hands...
what will we do with it?
a visionary speaker
sparks an innovator
a design takes shape
wheels set in motion
giving birth to a movement
spreading like a flame
through a church
an enterprise
a city
sparking new ideas
new adrenaline
walls fall and doors swing open
giving life and hope to
tens
hundreds thousands
moving mountains
feel it?—
potential
it’s everywhere
a quiver in the atmosphere
disturbing the Pacific Rim
fears in Japan
spark prayers in Berlin
connected
a flashing light
an ambulance siren
a freakish cold spell
in Lisbon
child and father under blankets
shivering by the bank on
Boulevard St Germaine
Paris
Hanover Street in Baltimore
by the convenience store
look in those eyes
movement in the ocean floor
Singapore
Bucharest
Malawi
United Nations
Children without vaccinations
09:00 hours Zulu time
leaders gather in New York
scribbled notes from a speech
pen and ink on a Moleskine,
three inspired physicians
having made a point to listen
now engage in conversation
posing the question
will these great minds be
moved...
to action?
they wish to learn
they book a flight
wings lift off into the night
passport check
security
Jakarta
Rwanda
Congo Kinshasa
sworn enemies
humble themselves
before a 40 inch screen
(as praying souls
in Paraguay hold their breath
on their behalf)
...unprecedented
they gather to learn
to heal and to hear
hands join in prayer
clearing the air
listening,
open
willing to be moved...
letting go the deepest of the
wounds..
reconciling
excising the fear
brothers
for the first time...
in one hundred years
instantaneous paths of prayer
whisper synced from here to
there
decisions to leave
decisions to stay
soldiers drop to their knees to
pray
13:00
hours
Syria
Libya
taking up arms
alert
alarms
worldwide
protests
desperate
prayer requests
old
regimes fall
new
ones rise
sleeping
churches come alive
calls to action
cyber campaigns
after the drought
comes at last...
the rain
Sao Paolo
Corcovado
statue of Christ with open hands
voiceless children
white hot sand
Chicago
Krakow
Amsterdam
commerce
drug trade
street lights
gang signs...
follow
down every pathway
Palestine
Mumbai
slums of the Dalit
zoom in on Cairo
the Zabaleen
Garbage city
children’s unprotected souls and
feet
one woman listens to the Voice
in the silence
and an idea
catches fire...
in the desert wind
the dry season ends....
the healing.. begins
South Asia
a church in a city that must not
be named
one step away
from being found out
shut down
incarcerated
but.. for the prayers in
Des Moines...
and Bahrain
always listen..
watch the streets..
read the signs..
between the lines..
baptisms
in hiding
in tubs
in fonts
in pools
in lakes
the cleansing water
the tides
the surf..
tsunami
Tokyo
from the heat of desperation
comes... connection
Japanese youth
take up a collection
for reconstruction
digging out from under the quake
caring for those left in the
wake
spending themselves for the sake
of the broken
what it takes...
is one listening ear...
wherever you are..
tuning in...
finger to the wind...
a willingness to be moved
23:59 hours:
zulu time
the stars glow predictably white
in the black night sky
some keen observers connect the
dots
and see them as constellations
others of scientific mind
see them carried along with us
in a vast gravitational sweep
that moves galaxies
others see each star as an
unrelated...
disconnected...
individual point of light..
all on its own...
alone..
in the universe
each awake and looking human
being
takes one last look at those
brilliant points of light...
and drifts off to sleep
reset the clock for one more day
...what will we do with
it?
