liezel graham

listen, listen, listen! before you lift a fist to defend God, a Man once showed you what to do, a Man stood on a mountainside and gave you a compass, or rather a map, the only map to find your way home:

be the merciful.

already these things are harder than they seem, but in your mouth is a mustard seed that you can plant seventy-times-seven-times a day and it will hurt, but love will blossom, although it might take a hundred generations.

be the maker of peace.

{someone has to be the first}

be hungry and thirsty for justice, but don’t hunt it down with weapons.

there are things you cannot see.

{people are hidden behind all sorts of disguises, even you}

{words are weapons too, but so is grace}

your heart is a pure thing, a clean thing.

nothing muddied and rancid nourishes.

it takes work to keep things clean.

{love, takes work}

you are meek and poor in spirit.

you are not a walking war.

a heart cannot be a war machine and still love, like Love loves.

{everyone has been a war machine at some point}

things begin, and end, in your heart.

your heart is a home to the Holy, Who knocks and knocks and knocks, waiting for someone to give Him a cup of water.

already this is grace—God, wearing the faces of other soft bodies, needing our help.

{everyone needs love and grace}

Jesus showed us this, over and over and over.

pay attention.

the angriest bodies make us want to pick up stones, they make it almost impossible to love them.

in God’s language this is called ‘needing help’.

do you still remember when you needed help?

also, nothing is impossible if you know the right Name.

listen, you are salt and you are light, believe this.

you are a city on a hill, not a battlefield.

{the heart can be a battlefield}

you are seen and you are loved.

they are seen and they are loved.

{there is no us and them, only siblings on the way home, always fighting over something}

{there once was a man named Cain who had a brother named Abel}

listen, listen, listen! everyone has picked up a stone.

stones can be dropped if the hand is opened.

heaven belongs to those who mourn.

{already this is a promise}

to love like God is a tender, fierce work.

listen, pay attention, if your heart has Jesus as a tenant, right now, you have hard work to do.

please, dear soft-bodied soul, do not allow yourself to be distracted.

{words with myself}