“Failure to structure my life and being on the reality of love leaves me less than what I want to be, less than what God desires me to be. My year listening to God’s Word and hearing of God’s love for humanity moves me to go beyond the words to a life committed to love, a way of being love to the world.” –Pam Ferguson, Fruit of the Vine

Query: Are you known for your love?

Doxology

Praise worn tires rooster tailing dust,

television news in the evening, black coffee,

rhubarb pie in the afternoon before the sun

goes down like a country song, and bunches

of lights ripen around the softball field.

Praise the young ones roaring out of town,

racing past the city limits sign.

When the beer runs out, gravity pulls them

in through an inky prairie night, across

the grease slick outside Case Implements.

Praise physical exams for the football players

before they straggle out at dawn onto wet grass,

groaning like cattle who have gotten sour feed,

moaning like a herd in line across the valley.

Praise all who failed on Main, with dreams

that needed more, and less familiar, traffic.

–Jeffrey Johnson, This Will Be a Sign