3 May 2013

brave (5 minute friday)


Joining with the community that is Five Minute Friday with the lovely Lisa Jo Baker. We like to write, not for comments or traffic or anyone else’s agenda. But for pure love of the written word. For joy at the sound of syllables, sentences and paragraphs all strung together by the voice of the speaker.

Five minutes on BRAVE

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Every person in that place held their breath as you made your way slowly to the front of the church. You turned and stood to face us and sing with a voice weakened by chemical battles, reedy but clear:

Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind but now I see


Not a dry eye or heart in that place as the words soared above us all. The waters of baptism gently washed over you and all our souls that day.

Some would say that was a brave performance, not technically perfect. But perfect would have been so wrong and not at all brave.

And later when your body was even weaker and threatening to leave this earth, and your parents cried out, God stepped down and showed me in a moment that bravery is sometimes to walk away from fighting. To stop engaging in pointless power battles.

Oh how I wish it had not been that way, that you would have lived a long life.

But then I doubt if any of us would have looked upon any truer bravery, grit, determination and the face of Jesus.

And we would be all the poorer and more wretched for it.


  
In memory of W who died age 14 years






4 comments:

  1. Awesomely beautiful post, bless you.

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  2. a great loss, a great one ...

    Linda

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  3. Thank you sharing this. You've touched my heart this afternoon. Blessings to you.

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