My faith grew in a moment with a stranger new.
I stood in line, selecting salad toppings, amongst throngs, but it felt like just we two.
Freshly met with extended hands at a conference like few.
To think if I had never turned and just withdrew.
I would have the missed the blessed moment of her story rare.
Her eyes glinting, and the reddish curls in her hair.
Strength and truth, in the air.
She said passion sparked in my stare.
She simply spoke words she felt at the time, in a salad line.
Peaceful wind to a bullet-ridden flag, its bearer weary of holding up against onslaught.
I have never known who I am. She said YES and YOU ARE.
Blessed friend, what can five minutes of honesty do?
Under the questions and fears
The voices in our ears
We saw each other free as what we could be.
So we decided to say: I believe.
I believe you can surmount the scars
The lies in your head
The trauma you’ve seen
Cursed darkness and dread.
When we with words of kindness speak out,
Connection, grace & faith scare
Down the doubt.
If you want to shake up this world.
Find someone unlovely, scared, or just caught.
Look deep in their eyes
See more than we’re taught.
See beauty turned out and upside down and in
On top of its head
Until you can’t stop the spin
You want radical love, you say that’s what’s true?
Find resurrection in death, death we can’t undo.
Find it in the dark when you can’t see the light
As you pray for them
On bruised knees, here tonight.
Your heart and mine empty right here
To what God sees.
I know He is near,
Not just in your life,
Not just in mine
But here in our dying and our living new words, when I say who you could be,
Because you can’t see,
The good you birth into this world---not on your terms, only on His.
Carrie, the girl this story’s about,
Gave me a gift of seeing God’s work I couldn’t see
It was all I could do not to shout it out.
I believe your trauma will die,
Your love and furrowed courage will rise up high.
I see you---alive and living this life full well.
Take me into the fray and fear,
Dear Jesus,
The passion tells me to.
- Christina H.
