Toasting a Union

This one goes out to my buddy Shad. I consider myself extremely blessed to get to be part of he and Meghann's special day tomorrow. And, since I didn't get to be at the rehearsal dinner tonight to make my toast, I'll make it now.

Here's the joining of two; let no man ever separate what God has combined into a singular, blessed union.
To the man, we charge you to be a worthy husband. Delegate your time, energy, money, and resources to the greatest benefit of your wife. She is now your responsibility as an extension of yourself. Provide for her in the ways that God has shown you. Let your attitude reflect a Godly love; one that is patient, kind, humble, and full of grace.
To the woman, we charge you to be a worthy wife. Delegate your care, fervor, and emotion to the greatest benefit of your husband. He is now your pride, as you two have become intertwined souls. Never let anyone lessen your part in this relationship; you are a pillar upon which this marriage can stand or crumble. Let your demeanor also reflect a Godly love; one that is gentle enough to comfort, but strong enough to admonish.
To the couple, we charge you to respect this union that God has created today. You are to uphold it as nothing less than a reflection of the unity that the church, as Christ's bride, enjoys with our Savior. Above all else, even each other, love the Lord our God. In doing this, you cannot help but love each other. We all cherish you, and celebrate the life you have begun.
Blessings!!

So sayeth The Brad...

The Angel Prepared Me

Indicting the quiet -
Insulting the crowds -
Inciting a riot -
Interpreting vows -
All these things and more I do for
Reasons I can't stand.
Giving everything I wanted
For a people stilted; stunted.

Tell me your secrets
Sweet Gabriel Angel,
And while in the womb, I'll listen to you
Just give me the lips
That are cleansed by the coal;
One day I'll speak mysteries too.

Remanding the fake
Regarding their lies -
Recinding the hate
Repressed in their eyes -
All these things and more I do
For people hard to swallow.
Leaving all I cared to find
To make my case and speak His mind.

Tell me your secrets
Sweet Gabriel Angel,
And while in the womb I'll listen to you
Just give me the lips
That are cleansed by the coal
One day I'll speak mysteries too

Unplanned caring,
Understanding
Underwhelmed and
Undemanding;
Feeling hopeless and disjointed,
I still stay the course:
Loving they who thought me heartless;
Stayed though I'd like to depart this.

Training, strained and forced service,
Standing, hands been wrapped with binding,
Fighting, plights have almost hurt us,
Crying, sighs come as they're dying.

Tell me your secrets
Sweet Gabriel Angel,
And while in the womb, I'll listen to you
Just give me the lips
That are cleansed by the coal
One day I'll speak mysteries too.

So sayeth The Brad...

Remedy to a Malady

The clouds are thick and rising.
Sleeping while the hull is leaking,
I woke you to a quick rebuking
Dreaming that soon we'd be sinking.
All my worries
Now remanded,
As you calm it -
Single-handed.

Calm the storm in me,
Break shackles, set me free;
Work the supernatural,
Miraculous
Remedy.
Release a faith in me,
If only tiny seeds;
Give a humble servant
Undeserved
Remedy.

You called me one evening -
Walking cross the dark waves, shouting.
Faith in hand I started stepping:
Drowning when I started doubting.
Water covered
Eyes and face, yet
You pulled me up
And chided me for being faithless.

Calm the storm in me,
Break shackles, set me free;
Work the supernatural,
Miraculous,
Remedy.
Relase a faith in me,
If only tiny seeds;
Give a humble servant
Undeserved
Remedy.

Healed so many lepers
Saved so many more
Demons fled and lame men walked
To the Savior of the poor.
Fed a thousand strong
And raised himself from dead.
Come to me, oh Son of Man:
Give me more faith than I've had.

Reaching to you, calling -
To touch your hem while falling;
Work a supernatural,
Miraculous
Remedy.
Beckon me from dying
And I'll walk to you smiling;
Give a humble servant
Undeserved
Remedy.
Calm the storm in me,
Break shackles, set me free;
Work a supernatural,
Miraculous
Remedy.
Release a faith in me,
If only tiny seeds;
Give a humble servant
Undeserved
Remedy


So sayeth The Brad...

My Second Side

I'm dreading things that I'll become
When you expose
My other side;
What's written there was never
Meant for any-
One but me.
Hold me to the light and think that
You can see
My other side;
Really it's distortion and
A backwards
Lie you see.

The monsters on my map
Don't live in undrawn tides-
They dwell inside the ink
Splattered on my second side

You try to flip me over so
I will show
My other side,
Then whimper when you see just what
It is that
You will get.
Wondering why you can't discern this
Image on
My other side:
Scrawled upon my back with ink made
Up of what
You can't accept.

The monsters on my map
Don't live in undrawn tides-
They dwell inside the ink
Splattered on my second side.

Careful, traveller, here are things
That dwarf the monsters you have seen
What look like angels by the day
Do turn to demons straightaway
And blow you far to distant lands
Which leaves me all alone again.

So sayeth The Brad...

I Was the Worst of Sinners Here

I was the worst of sinners here,
With conscience cloudy and unclear;
Standing by while rocks were thrown
And guarding cloaks while hurling stones.
Though other hands were stained that day,
With crimson nails and sullied face
I stood my ground, but looked away
From killing he who preached the Way.

Killed so many sinners; but slaughtered many more
Through apathy or compromise, these servants of my Lord
And though I see no bodies or wreckage in my wake,
The loss is counted all in souls I helped to wear or break.

I've made martyrs out of brothers
Never bound to me by mother
Or the strictures of a system
Linking through geneticism.
Siblings intertwined at souls -
I've punctured, skewered, stuck with holes.
Left my loved ones in the cold
And buried them for being bold.

Killed so many sinners; but slaughtered many more
Through apathy or compromise, these servants of my Lord
And though I see no bodies or wreckage in my wake,
The loss is counted all in souls I helped to wear or break.

Neutered gospel,
Broken strides,
Selfish and
Unbroken pride -
Lead me to the
Darkened sides
Of treason and
Averted eyes.

Harmed the witness of the ones
That got ovations from the Son
"In the past," I've heard it said,
But still it's ringing in my head:
The sound of stoning Stephen dead.
So sayeth The Brad...

A Contemplation of My Brokenness

I looked down
And feathers, once mighty,
Now snapped and broken,
Bent and torn,
Lay strewn about the ground
Like drops of down I had bled
Unceassingly.
Unto the earth they had fallen,
As if I had shed them willingly,
Yet only I was to know
It had not been my desire
But had been desired of me;
To create a perfect
Servant
I had been rendered flightless,
And on the ground
I knelt.

People walked around,
Looked with eyes
Of oblivion,
And none saw my shame.
Did any realize my pain?
No one there
To understand the breadth
Of my humbling.
A few might stare -
With minds not yet to comprehend -
But still not a one,
For me there was no companion
In thought or experience;
Abandoned in the wilderness
Of my destroyed pride.

As I clutched the shards
And feathered pieces
That once had born me unto that
Sky above,
I looked ahead, unable to believe
Or know what I must do.
And so I simply unclenched my fists,
Dropping what I clung to,
Inching to what
I had to accept,
My hands crept over shoulders
To wings that were not there.
While feeling still their potency,
Desiring their presence
Upon my back,
All that was left:
My shame
My scars
My wings now broken at the stems

God looked down and nodded,
I looked down and wept;
Accepting all my training
And tears of blood to shed

So sayeth The Brad...