Love and Suffering

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There’s a rescue from the peace this world offers, sailing on this sea of suffering. This boat called love and understanding. The boarding pass is hope, a ragged ticket we have crumpled in clenched and sweaty hands. Hope that exceeds our understanding but recognizes being beloved. Knowing that despite all faults we are being beckoned to board, to plow through wave upon wave of desperation. Still with each stinging buffet of the cold, salt spray, we rely on a trust, a faith, that regardless of the pain and suffering in our weakened strength, we feel bouyed by the ship seaworthiness that keeps its unfailing course north. North to a distant coast beyond the gloomy horizon that has a lighthouse which eminates a beam that draws the ship. A light that burns with love and thirsts for weary souls.
By Chris Clody 5/23/25.

The Desert

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Midnight blooms,
Life amid death,
Dew quenches the dryness,
Dawn steals our breath,
Spirit searches my very depth.

In the desert of my soul,
The Lord has heard my cry,
Hope shades the hot sands,
Daring to defy,
A lone cloud passes by.

Comforting my angst,
Dispelling feelings of doom,
The sun retreats into night,
Moonlit faith consumes,
As midnight blooms.

Chris Clody
4/11/25

Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Islamic State in Sinjar town, walk towards the Syrian border on the outskirts of Sinjar mountain near the Syrian border town of Elierbeh of Al-Hasakah Governorate in this August 11, 2014 file photo. The Islamic State, which had declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria, prompted tens of thousands of Yazidis and Christians to flee for their lives during their push to within a 30-minute drive of the Kurdish regional capital Arbil.

The Spectacle

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Lead by crowd curiosity
We stare at the crucifixion
Mixed emotions makes God hard to see,
A mother weeps in her affliction,
As humanity perseveres in dereliction.

Yet, we must rise above the spectacle,
Into a worthy form of contemplation,
Above this bizarre, bloodthirst festival,
To see the good, the holy, and acceptable.

Visions of hope as sin is swallowed,
Death’s sting no longer impregnable,
Christ ‘s final words are closely followed.

“Into Your hands I commend my Spirit”,
Jesus finds favor in the Father’s merit.

By Christopher Clody
3/29/25

Open Your Eyes

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The beauty of it all,
The knowing that we breathe
From forgotten to recalled,
The courage to believe
To give all and not receive.

Tear down your prison walls
This facade we build to decieve
Let your gratitude stand tall
Open your eyes and believe.

Abandon yourself to God,
Knowing He will never leave,
Let His spark become a lightning rod.

Spread God’s love and watch the Spirit stir up,
So Christ may draw them in and the Father lift up.

By Chris Clody 4/18/24

The Hidden God

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I’ve been gnawing on the phrase, “communication manifested” for the last week. It was a reference to the Holy Spirit who is the love between the Father and the Son. This love is eternal and unbroken. Compared to the love I show, let’s just say it has its “hesitations” at times. Today I invite you to realize the One who “comes alongside” of us as we carry the cross we are meant to bear. Truly, truly we are profoundly loved!

Blessed Holy Spirit

Communication eternally manifested

Between the Almighty Father and Son,

By a love so pure, constant, and time tested.

Wind, flame, dove, or spouse to a virgin’s son,

He is help for disciples’ life well lived.

The Eternal and Holy Spirit awaits,

Who hears and molds our prayers before there bid,

A lamp to our feet and a true soulmate,

The Paraclete that guides us to our fate.

The counsellor who gives the words to say,

Whose seven virtues may help liberate,

Ourselves and neighbors from sin that betrays.

Bless You Spirit for making us new creations,

Conforming hearts, mind, body and soul for our assumption.

By Chris Clody 4/2/24

Silent Day

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A day of silent reflection
Fills the breath I take
Oxygen forms a connection
Loving all for Christ’s sake
Into His kingdom I escape.

Beyond a mental ascent,
But act when my heart aches,
To bring relief to torment,
To rescue neighbors from descent.

I enter through Reconciliation,
From reality’s lament,
His kingdom waits in anticipation.

Today is a day of profound reflection,
awaiting Sunday’s miraculous resurrection.

By Chris Clody 3/30/24

Heaven’s Guarantee

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Set your mind forever free,
Unshackled and wild,
riding upon the rushing wind.
Thoughts glide upon the cool breeze,
Love floats undefiled,
Detaching from the grasp of Adam’s sin.

Prayer becomes the faith we see,
Innocent as a joyful child.
Goosebumps rise from the skin,
Chilled by eternal myst’ry.
Love lifts the lips to smile,
Finally healing the heart from within.

Following Christ will surely set you free…
Faith, hope, and love is Heaven’s guarantee.

By Chris Clody 1/16/23

Lifeforce

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There is a binding Lifeforce,
Replete with Animation
Gathering busy atoms
into forms of awe and function.

We are baffled by conscience,
Wonderstruck by imagination,
The soul’s a gift of mystery,
Beckoning human salvation.

The Creator of all things,
Is more than mere conception,
Rather God’s rousing of a
slumbering creation

The very act of common prayer,
A pull towards conversation,
Between created and Creator,
A Reconciliation.

By Chris Clody ~ 12/7/23

Seeds of Grief

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The seeds of grief,
Are gifted to us all,
Laying dormant for years,
Until dampened by our tears.

Then life turns over a new leaf,
Love braces itself before it falls,
Deep into the soil without fear,
Trusting a crack in the coffin appears,
Sprouting new life to angel cheers.

Trusting sorrows will be stolen by a theif,
A “God of Surprises” comes to call,
The assumption of a body we hold dear,
As the sprout breaks ground like a Roman spear,
The soul and body unite into Heaven’s tier,
Christ wipes away His good servant’s tears,
A room prepared by the Lord soon appears,
Lit by forgiveness over fear,
Truly, grief is a gift is abundantly clear.

By Chris Clody 10/22/23

Right side of History

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What is the right side of history?
This is the bait to the fallen heart.
Faith begs our heart to kneel in humility, while the sparkling bait of oppressive ideologies, glittering half-truthes, yearning towards a needful rush towards progressiveness without a solution in mind.
There are two solutions,
One of faith in God’s love, mercy and justice,
The other fallen, distracted, and divisive.
God also casts its bait. A bait less attractive to the primitive needs of rebellion. For it is neither the right, left, or even the lukewarm middle that solve the human condition. Only the humble heart that realizes its powerlessness, can actually discern which bait is being pulled towards false or true human evolvement.

By Chris Clody
4/3/23