Poetry Ponderings

In my previous call in Sioux Falls, I began a practice of writing poetry to go along with the scripture for a given week.  In my transition and getting settled, I had fallen out of practice.  I am going to try, when possible to get back into the habit of writing poetry again.  I will post it when possible.  Below is a poem written on tonight's worship story...The Good Samaritan.




Luke 10:25-37 

Who is my neighbor?  I look around and ask?
Is it the one who lives next door, and never cuts their grass?
Maybe God, my neighbor can just be people that I know.
For surely I don’t have neighbors that challenge me and make me grow.
How do I know, dear Jesus, just who my neighbor is?
For surely there must be limits to the people who I have to give a love like this?
I ask who my neighbor is, and you answer with a tale…
Of men who walk on by another who is left to cry and wail.
The one who stops surprises me…surely that can’t be right.
My neighbor is the same ones who keep me up at night?
You want me to love them Lord, the ones who aren’t like me?
It’s hard to love them God, hard for me to see…
How loving others can be right when they don’t love me back.
But you teach me that by loving them, I am providing what they lack.
Open my eyes to see, Lord Christ, the ones I’ve walked right by.
And teach my heart to see all people as “neighbors” through your eyes.