CLICK to return to Home Page

Articles not in CET

Issue 021 <previous< Issue 022 Volume 5 No 3 June 1999 >next> Issue 023
“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord’”

Poems By Jimmy Allen

Jacob at Jabbock: Sunrise
By Jimmy R. Allen

[Dr. Jimmy Allen is Chaplain at the Big Canoe resort community in the Georgia mountains north of Atlanta.]

I wrestle in the blackness of night with the Specter
Knowing not whether He would do me good or evil

It is enough that life is closing in with suffocating pressure
Options of youth have evaporated…
    faded with the passage of time

Decisions long made bear bitter fruits of confusion
One would think by now I would know who and 
    what I am

But the Force rising and seizing me, thrashing in the darkness,
Says I do not yet know the Destiny 
    Awaiting me

Holding on with fierce determination, knowing
    that if I let go all is lost
Implacable Divinity probes my soul with the 
   deepest and most painful question of all….

How can I name myself? What is my life about? 
    What is throbbing within my soul?
Can I trade trickery for trust, stop using 
    and risk loving?

The sun rises as I stagger lame and 
    limp from battle,
Can my new name really mean that God and I have
   grappled and in the Mystery

Have I heard the VOICE of LIFE?


Star Maker/Sparrow Watcher
By Jimmy R. Allen

It's a long way from twinkle, twinkle little star
To finding out that earth is a tiny planet surrounded 
    by Stars many times her size

It's a long way from space probes discovering planets 
   Massive and many
To knowing that there are billions of stars and even 
    Billions of Galaxies

The heavens declaring the glory of God shout in 
    Decibels far off the scale
But they point to reality that none of these could be 
    Without Intelligence of awesome majesty.

Star Maker You are and my mind is overwhelmed.
    My faith is renewed
I am paralyzed by wonder.

The puzzle of my life lies not in the idea that You
    Are Star Maker
The puzzle of my life lies in the claim that You 
    Are Sparrow Watcher.

 

Updated Tuesday, January 02, 2001


Mission Statement | Fair Use of Material | Disclaimer | Contact | Board of Directors | Submit Corrections

Printing Company for the Journal

All material on this site copyright ©2000-2008
by The Christian Ethics Today Foundation
Web Site started November 14, 2000.
Include the following if your use/reference any material:
©2000-2008 by The Christian Ethics Today Foundation
www.ChristianEthicsToday.com and
the URL of the page you are citing.

Your comments and inquiries are always welcome. Manuscripts which fulfill the purposes of Christian Ethics Today may be submitted to the editor for publication consideration. Contact for postal address. Format for Submissions