Trilogy

Trilogy

Light
I see the shadows shifting
Moving across my window pane
The dancing of light in moving motion
It travels down the lane
The moving speaks of time and times
That sing and dance all around
Just what you think is moving up
Is really coming down
As His goodness showers us all

Wind
I cannot see You, I cannot see You
Yet I see You move in what You do
The swaying branches, the rustling leaves
The golden harvest in browning sheaves
The movements, the motions, the sounds, the dance
They level and flatten all mere circumstance
I see You, I see You in all that You do
I see You, I see You making all of me new

Water
The power of droplet, and the cleansing of wave
Universal solvent meets the passion of love
That washes over and over and over again
It cleanses what will be, it cleanses what has been
Even cleansing what is and what is now
Though I know it with my brow
I still cannot comprehend, no, I still cannot comprehend
But I drink it in.

I drink it in

K. Duane Carter
3-19-09

Cage of Lights

Cage of Lights

I am sitting in a cage of lights
Yet pretending I am unseen
Looking out at those looking in
And wondering what it means
I sit here in my sleeping dreams
Releasing all of my doubt
I wonder when the Sun will rise
And cast the darkness out
I am sitting in the silent noise
That speaks but doesn’t say
I am wandering as a little boy
Just wondering how to pray
I live in a land of wonder here
And when I open up my eyes
I hear the sunlight coming through
My heart is mesmerized

I am free


K. Duane Carter

3-16-09

The Mystery in a Rose

Σπιριτυαλ

there is something fascinating about the rose
that not even quantum physics can quite explain
though it seems to be getting closer and closer
just like we could be doing
if we would simply allow ourselves to see what is real
instead of seeing with our eyes

there is a mystery here in the subtle depths
there are patterns and contrasts that point to God
there is a picture of a never-ending promise of love
that continues to unfold and unfold and unfold and unfold
just like the string theory

there is something fascinating about the rose
that not even quantum physics can quite explain
yet we get closer and closer and closer
rather He gets closer and closer and closer
so we can see what is Real
instead of what we see with our eyes


K. Duane Carter

3-13-09

Color of Light

Color of Light
I see color now in mixed array
I see light now joining in the fray
I see goodness flowing in it all
I see darkness falling in a glorious fall
I see mercy flowing over me
I see grace now rising from a tree
I see green and yellow and red and blue
I see light and know that I’m seeing You
I see roses and daisies and flowers of spring
I see beauty and stillness and in You everything
I see lilies and buttercups and flowers of spring
I see beauty and stillness and in You everything

K. Duane Carter
3-11-09

Picture of God

I see God in this picture
First in its mystery that some would say
This isn’t in focus, the camera did sway
But no, it did not, there was simply delay

And the lens captured God in the moment

We see Him through glass and darkly at that
But He is here, He is here and today as I sat
And I saw Him my heart did leap up with glee
Because He had chosen to give His picture to me

I see Him in rock, I see Him in water
I see Him in light and all other matter
I see Him in the flowing, I see Him in the still
I see Him amongst us in the wonder of will
I see Him in the contrasts of shadows and light
I see Him in the depths and in the midst of my sight

As I ponder this picture I could go on and on
But I will give you time to see Him
And to sing your own song

K. Duane Carter
3-1-09

The Great Exchange

It has been a while since I have blogged because I frankly have been struggling with who I am and where I am and what I am supposed to be doing, and it is very difficult to write in the midst of a battle. It all started with a trip to a marriage conference with my wife, and as God is prone to do, He addressed way more than my marriage. He plunged into the depths of me and brought up what was there and I was none too proud of it all. In fact it made me mad because I thought all of that stuff was “under the blood of Jesus” and gone and forgotten. He quickly showed me how it was still affecting the way I act and think and respond to others (including my wife), and that even though Jesus had paid the price for its removal I had simply hidden it all away instead of allowing Him to take it away. In fact, I was lying to myself thinking it was gone when it manifested itself every day in the way I acted and lived. I then spent some time in sheer drudgery and in even more anger because I began to rehash through all of my old stuff, but I forgot that God is found in conversations and not in mere introspection, so that opened the door for the accuser to come in and just hammer me. Finally, God got my attention and gently reminded me that He is often found in the conversations of life, in the face-to-face interactions with others that I so rarely enter into and even more rarely seek out. He began to show me that if I would simply listen to what He has to say, that His truth was more than adequate to set me free. Even deeper than that was the fact that the truth was found in the seeking itself; that is, in my simply being present with Him and before Him, I am being transformed. In other words, I don’t have to work to be perfect anymore. I can actually be honest before Him and give Him all of my failure and heartache and loss and allow Him to give me Himself. WOW! It’s no wonder it is called “the great exchange!” So, that is the point today. I had to learn that God doesn’t want me to clean up before I can approach Him. Rather, He saw me off in the distance dirty and stinking and covered in pig filth, and He ran to me. And before I could even explain what had happened and what I had done, He was looking at me and saying, “Bring the best clothes, put the ring on his finger, and let’s have a big party! My boy is home!” THAT is God. That is how He responds to me right in the midst of my garbage. And that is how He responds to you, too.

Western Civilization's Biggest Blunder

We modern people think we know so much of the natural world, yet we hardly know anything at all. Think about the depth of knowledge and wisdom from the subatomic world and then expand that into the vastness of the universe. Think of the wonder of the cellular world and then expand that wonder into the majesty of the humpback whale. Think of the diversity of ecosystems around the world and all that it takes in winds and weather patterns to keep this all in balance. Yet God knows and understands all of this. All of this falls within His field of expertise which is, well, everything. And then go on to consider that even in the midst of all the wonder of the natural world, there is a spiritual one that is even greater and more magnificent than the natural one. Here is our greatest deficit, and the west’s greatest blunder. To our utter detriment, we have almost completely ignored the spiritual world. Sadly we have ignored it to the point of even denying it exists. Why? The answer is because we cannot use rationalism to discover it; the scientific method is powerless here. So instead of searching out how to discover it, we have ignored it, or worse denied its existence, and this has caused us tremendous loss. We have ignored the world where our true purpose lies, where our true meaning is, and where we truly live. We have completely lost touch with this spiritual world because we have been taught that if the scientific method cannot discover a thing or demonstrate a concept, then it therefore doesn’t exist.
So we have died as human beings, and we have become mere animal. In a way, Nietzche was right: we have “killed” God. What is more right is we have killed our capacity to know Him.
But God is not dead. No, He is alive and well. Not only is He alive and well, but also He is in quite a good mood. He is in such a good mood that He is ready to unleash His goodness into the earth. Those who are ready spiritually will see Him, those who are not will try to explain it all away. To be ready for Him we must be ready for a spiritual world. We must realize that God is far and above the scientific method. That is one thing that has completely baffled me about the embracers of naturalism. Why would anyone want or need a God that could be boiled down by the scientific method? He would be no better than us. And why base the entire meaning and purpose of life in the scientific method? Why? The scientific method cannot discover ANYTHING beyond itself. It is limited in its scope. It is a powerful method, yes, but it is limited nonetheless because it is bound by the observation of limited man. And even if the knowledge of man obtained by science reaches incredible peaks and we can explain emotions and behavior and thought and soul, it will still not be able to touch the spiritual world at all. And because the scientific method cannot touch the spiritual world at all, then it cannot be used to prove that the spiritual world does not exist. Even simple logic shows a universal negative cannot be proven, so we cannot cry “the spiritual world doesn’t exist” because science cannot touch that world and it therefore cannot comment on its existence.
We have suffered tremendously as a people for ignoring the spiritual world. In our quest for knowledge (which isn’t necessarily evil in and of itself) we have ignored the very world where the deepest mysteries and greatest wisdom reside. We have ignored the world where God Himself dwells, and we can readily see the results of ignoring this world by looking at our cities and their spiritual and moral dilapidation even in the midst of growing material splendor. As the glory of steel and money and luxury increase, so do the terrors of murder, theft, divorce, drug abuse, and child abuse.
So when are we going to wake up? When are we going to see that in order to meet the world’s needs we are going to have to enter into the place where science and humanism cannot possibly lead us? When are we going to begin to ponder the existence of better and more incredible worlds and beings? And in that quest when are we going to begin to see that we have missed the mark on an incredible scale? When are we going to see? When are we going to see?