Someone asked me recently: Are all artists prophets? Great question! I think so, of one sort of another. Artists deal in symbolic communication, usually from some liminal space between realms. It just depends what they are communicating or carrying in their symbolic containers, as to what type of prophet they are. Prophets are those who fountain forth from The Divine. Of course, it matters which divine your channeling! But I also think artist are teachers. Teachers of how to see more of what Is. But that’s another question which my friend didn’t really ask. So I’ll answer that elsewhere. I love interesting questions though!

Home:

My dad used to take me on road trips when i was a kid, to some of the places I was interested in (whatever they happened to be that season)—Buddy Holly’s hometown, Bruce Springsteen’s house, Graceland, the Grand Canyon, to Wales, once to see Prince (true story!), Royal Shakespeare at the Globe, and to study CS Lewis and George MacDonald in Scotland once, and places like that (i was interested in culture and where it intersects with spirituality, even then!)– and we used to ride for hours across the country on road trips in silence together, before I usually had to start talking.

Both of us just being ourselves and sharing space in unspoken love, and a type of mutual knowing. I like that silent space between us all, where the words, “You are my beloved son,” are implied by the ride!

Isn’t that the space, in the big picture, we live in and from?! To be caught up in the Loving Voice between The Father and His Son is still home. And, I still value silence like that.

What Zion really is…

When you think of Zion you think of Israel or land or some ideal. What I would like to suggest is that Zion is the place of His uninterrupted Presence, where His Kingdom actually is incarnate! We are looking for Zion in one another and on the earth.

Zion is, historically, the place He chose to Lay down His Name or Being on earth. (Through David, and then the Jews, and even the christians later were called sion) But in us, it is the place where God is allowed to move and be, and make us more our true selves. Where His Actual Presence is allowed to break in, and form us into what we really are.

Zion echoes with the voice of His Love, and from this Voice alters us into our true contours. So, when we are looking for Zion to come in one another, we are praying that His Kingdom would more fully come in ourselves and those we encounter! We are praying to be in Zion already, together.

What it looks like to restore Zion on earth in one another! Zion is an image of wholeness and integration unity in scripture. But we labor for it for one another as well! When the full Presence of God enters, things are un-interrupted. They become whole and pronounceable by God! That’s what we are working on, restoring zion on earth. We are walking towards Zion, as the old song rightly sings!

From an article I’m working on about the Zion in each of us-the place of wholeness…enjoying working on this idea of Zion in each of us! Zion of course was both the city of God and the place in us which is resonating in this city already…both the place where there is uninterrupted Presence, and the city we are walking towards…

Thinking about Zion, not just the literal land and city, but the spiritual reality of the place of His uninterrupted Presence. Where things are fully themselves. That to me is Zion-where everything is fully in His Light, as St John describes the future at the end of The book–all is Day, and The Father and Son are both with us again as in the garden, but now it is a gardened city! If Zion has already begun to break in, how can I walk through its gates, and call forth and polish its golden streets in others that I meet! How can we walk more in Zion already, down here!

The Zion in us still wants to be pronounced! I work daily on the zion in others. I want to see them restored, made whole. Pronounced. That’s my passion. And that space We share. Trust is the start of pronouncing one another names well. Trusting Him to fully inhabit what is already His. In this way, we usher in His Kingdom into one another! We look for Zion in one another! This is not just true for nations, but for each person whose face we are willing to behold into being.

Are we ministering from and into Zion in one another?! We can expand the kingdom in one another, even through a loving gaze.

The Zion in us still wants to be pronounced! I work daily on the zion in others. I want to see them restored, made whole. Pronounced. That’s my passion. And that space We share. Trust is the start of pronouncing one another’s names well. This is not just true for nations, but for each person whose face we are willing to behold into being daily.

My stupid daily meditation, what’s it worth in the end, if it doesn’t glorify Him. My name is hidden in His forever. Who am I—nobody and everybody, a poem worth pronouncing because of The Poem we are in. And the One who desires to pronounce us! The Zion in us still sings!

People who transcended their genre and became universal! I like those odd balls! Including those in the church. When we write we think too much about other’s perceptions, we should just write, create or live from what is placed and what comes fully into our hearts, and try to write well and honestly, and humbly about that process. We are just servants of The Word in the end. Little servant words becoming…we are.

To the unbelievable welcoming of other! We go!

Today i heard her deepest forest view of things—helpful!

I like, in evening, dipping my head through branches, and catching sight of the brightest evening star, and then when i see the crescent moon as a surprise, I’m shocked and shook again! That happened this evening. Humbling; forces one to want to bow even-the urge to worship is in us daily! Thankful for small wonders, which shake and shook me awake again today.

Love’s best words today, occurred in Silence.