If you are looking for love and respect
Where people welcome you just as you are,
Then join in our prayer to God to protect
This gentle oasis, this crowning star

In the Kingdom of Christ attracting all
Who are weak and weary, lonely and blue.
If you think God’s not there or does not care,
Guyton Christian Church wants to welcome you.

If you want to live with Jesus as Lord,
If you cry for the Holy Spirit’s power,
Join brothers and sisters of one accord
And visit us once, just for an hour.

The table of Christ is where we would share
God’s love. Please join us. We welcome you there.

Antisocial media enables
The best of friends to show their darker sides.
We show the world that we deserve our labels,
Displaying what a wiser person hides.

Antisocial media permits us
To wear our worst opinions on our sleeves.
Then we try to shine the shoe that fits us,
We boast until our better angel grieves.

Antisocial media empowers
Fools like me to brag and strut and show
I don’t stop to count the bricks for towers
Before I start to make the structure grow.

Antisocial media revealing
Ugliness we’re better off concealing.

You never hear how old oldtimers are
Until their numbered days on earth are done.
They always seem so young, a shooting star.
Mere shadows, now remembered like the sun,

Illuminating corners of psyche
That otherwise can’t bear the light of day.
A thorny life in death remaining spikey.
A sticky situation, as they say.

The Bible says we all will be forgotten.
Remembered only in the heart of God.
Though briefly sanctified, good or rotten,
All look the same reposed beneath the sod.

Mundane days remembered take on glory.
Those who are no more are just a story.

Of all the evil people, roughly half
Think themselves to be righteous and holy.
But which am I? I beat my breast and laugh
And boast about humility that solely

Shields my soul from sights of mirrored darkness
Lest I should loathe myself like I loathe them.
Those evil people’s evil ways in starkness
Whose chance to walk the narrow way is slim.

Of all the evil people, roughly half
Know they are bad and maybe half of those
Wish they were not. They welcome rod and staff
And pray with pruning something better grows.

Of all the evil people, many more
Will make amends on this side of the door.

No, don’t tell him! What will he say? We know
It was wrong, but we did it anyway.
Shhh! Stay quiet! Maybe it will just blow
Over. Let it wait for a better day.

Hush! It’s a secret! Just say nothing. Hush!
Not his business anyway. We don’t care.
Doesn’t matter now. Really, what’s the rush?
No one breathe a word! None would even dare.

Wake from the nightmare. Now, we live the dream.
That took guts and tough negotiation.
Civil War has ended. Now, we’re a team.
Nightmare over. Time for jubilation.

This is how the judgment works: People hide
That which proves their darkness is bonafide.

Judas never meant to harm. He only
Tells the truth and the chips fall where they may.
Judas, he was just confused and lonely.
He had a bad idea on a bad day.

Judas didn’t mean to stir up trouble.
Tired of cutting bait and ready to fish,
He was tired of living in a bubble.
Judas wanted to grant a careless wish.

Can’t please everybody, he discovered.
Can’t please anybody, he confesses.
Couldn’t please himself, and so he hovered
In that hell the scripture oft addresses.

To make matters worse, he never found hope.
He couldn’t see past the end of his rope.

Bless his heart! Does he really know what’s what?
He tries, yes, but he’s in over his head.
Trying too hard for too long, has he not?
We gave him a chance, but that chance is dead.

We had high hopes, but the job isn’t done.
Isn’t it time to let someone else try?
I know we were hoping he was the one,
But that didn’t work; time to say good-bye.

Times are a changing, but he stayed the same,
He just doesn’t have the drive anymore.
I don’t think he’s trying; his words are so lame,
And they sound like something he said before.

Blood in the narthex leads to the culprit.
Time for fresh blood to lead from the pulpit.

I am not in the mood to make words rhyme
Or to count syllables to fit each line.
I am just not inspired to ring that chime.
And seek though I may, I can’t find a sign

To show that this is the time for writing
That forty-fourth sonnet in this series.
Maybe I’ll skip it instead of fighting
This drunken muse. But, sadly, I fear he’s

Just passing through, so I am inclined to
Take what he offers no matter how lame.
I may be wrong, but I am not blind to
How dull the wild word once overly tame.

Whatever. ‘Tis writ. It won’t be erased.
Worthy? Who cares? No accounting for taste.

Was it sand in your eye that made things look
So desperate? Maybe premature weaning
That made you suspect that blade sings took
No vespers hate. Say he flees the cure, meaning

Nothing is wrong but thinking makes it so.
You’ve got a feeling just because you’ve got
A feeling something isn’t right, yet no
Problem lies without. The problem is not

Out there somewhere. It doesn’t match your fears.
Out where some care. It doesn’t fit your thought.
So isn’t it clear? There between your ears,
Is where the problem lies – and lies – and ought

To give you disassurance that you know
Anything of anything. No down low.