If you follow this podcast, you know that it started with Holly saying to Bill, “We should just record our conversations.” So we did. And if you’ve stayed with this podcast, you will also notice that we return to themes, among them: what is the state of the world and how are we to show up in it?

The specific circumstances demand different responses from us, but the question seems to surface again and again. It is as my oldest son put it, “What is the human element?”

We, too, are still figuring it out. It’s a painful and beautiful project.

Today Bill shared this poem by Jan Phillips.

I Found Jesus
(He was behind the couch the whole time)
People call themselves seekers.
Always looking, always looking.
It puzzles me: whole lifetimes spent seeking
And they never find It.
If our home wasn’t in flames,
I could let it go, that myth
about God with the whole world in his hands.
Come on.
Why are we reading (sacred) texts
From centuries gone by
While today’s prophets go unheard?
We were a simpler people then—
Needing parables to help us see
The ways we lighten or darken a threshold.
It is too late now
Not to speak of fire.
Anything else is collusion, complicity.
The prophets of today peer out from mirrors
in town homes and tenements.
We do not speak of golden calves, swarms of locusts.
We speak of rainforests, poisoned waters, polluted skies.
Will you please
Give words to your wisdom or fear
And tell your truth to someone?
It’s OK to blunder, to stammer,
OK that tears and snot stream down your face.
This mess is worthy of our grief.
A wise man once said we’re the light of the world.
Tell me, what might be different if you shined for a day?

This poem speaks to the heart of so much. The world is on fire, how do we tend to it, and what is our truth? Each line is worth pondering.

Another recommendation is David Attenborough’s latest documentary, The Green Planet, which is equally sobering and stunning.

Thanks for listening! Have a good week.