No More Stones

When did we get so jaded?

So faded?

So indescribably masqueraded?

Where did our soul turn onyx?

Black and cold bitter tonic?

Heart of stone to haunt us?

How did we turn an emerald green?

Jealousy casting an envious sheen?

Turning gratitude to mean?

Why did we get so bejeweled?

Grief like deep sapphire blue?

Stained like a ruby red hue?

What stone have we become?

What idol have we bowed too long?

Who stole our sacred song?

We used to be

A diamond in the rough

We used to see

The brilliance of the cut

We used to feel

The clarity of the Son

Dare not give us back our diamonds, Lord

We don’t want stones anymore

We want a heart of flesh

A new spirit, One Spirit

Tender to Your Ways

Clean

Washed in the water

Flesh

We don’t want you to polish stones, Lord

Give us a heart of flesh, Lord.

We long to be your people —

And You, our God.

Write on our hearts Your story

Make us a letter of Christ

Spirit of the Living God,

Make us a heart of flesh.

CJZ:ss

4/19/21

12:55am

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

Ezekiel 36:25-27

You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

2 Corinthians 3:2-3

Tenderness. At the end of the day, after all of life's storms, I will fight to stay tender. And I will pray for a heart of flesh.

The other options are many:

A bitter root.

A hard heart.

A leathered soul.

A cynic's sarcasm.

A humor darkened by pain.

A tough exterior.

A thickened skin.

A heart of stone.

A stony heart.

A skin, thickened.

An exterior, tough.

A pain darkened by humor.

A sarcastic cynic.

A soul, leathered.

A heart, hardened.

A root, bitter.

Tenderness. At the end of the day, after all of life's sorrows, pains, sufferings, and injustices, I will fight to stay tender. And I will pray for a heart of flesh.

There's no way I'm going down to the grave a bitter old woman jaded by the trials of this life. Will life still hurt? Will my flesh still feel the pain that a callous might numb? That a stone might replace with unfeeling cold-heartedness?

Yes, life will still hurt. And overwhelm. And cruelty and crime will seem the order of the day,

Yet, the essence of the God I serve is that His mercies are tender.

He is tender. His tenderness extends to us in our suffering. He is not harsh or hardened to our pain. He is not a stone-cold statue viewing our sufferings with contempt. He is near. He is kind. He is full of tenderness. Afterall, Jesus became a 'heart of flesh' for us so that He might share in our sufferings, and us in His.

 We give great honor to those who endure under suffering. For instance, you know about Job, a man of great endurance. You can see how the Lord was kind to him at the end, for the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy. James 5:11, The Bible NLT

This poem is arguably one of my personal favorites because of the ease and the tendency with which I can fall into being jaded, faded, indescribably masqueraded.

Dare not give us back our diamonds, Lord

We don’t want stones anymore

We want a heart of flesh

A new spirit, One Spirit

Tender to Your Ways

Tenderness.

No matter what you face today, at the end of the day,

I hope you fight to stay tender.

I hope you pray for a heart of flesh.

I hope you know the fullness of God's tenderness, mercy and kindness to you in your sufferings.

I hope you dance.