So much sharpness in the world today: bare tree branches that pierce the sky like forked lightning, zebu horns poking the air like staples, headless palms erect as straight pins. Hawk wings slice the atmosphere, machetes crack through vines, bike spokes whirr. Even the blades of grass have a cutting edge. If air were solidContinue reading “Like the Air that I Breathe”
Author Archives: Linnea Boese
He Split the Confines of Their Box
His kindness overwhelmed them from the start: the way he chose his students, hearts that yearned for meaning beyond fishing nets or taxes; welcoming the seventy, both genders, to his company— the way he broke the rules that kept the stranger snubbed and minimized, and crushed the prejudice that said a woman should not learn,Continue reading “He Split the Confines of Their Box”
Blaze!
Across the bristling grasses and the breezy palm tree dance lies a long lagoon, all liquid, mirror for the sky’s expanse. Underneath a white-hot sun it becomes a brilliant blast and my eyelids squint to slivers letting just a glimmer past: just the essence of the power, just the outline of the heat, just impressionsContinue reading “Blaze!”
A New Normal
It’s not easy to stand out as different when I’m seen as being odd, distasteful to those who find me irritating— rubbing them the wrong way because I don’t fit their parameters of “normal.” Not easy for me, not easy for them. I’m being reshaped, remade from the inside out, and my shape no longerContinue reading “A New Normal”
Under Attack!
The timing, the coincidence, enraged them! How could those Jesus-people go ahead and wreck the crucial hours with song? How could it wreak such havoc when they repeat that dread Name, over and over in prayer and testimonies, dancing in the dust with “Alleluias”? Their rites were rendered useless, impotent, there in the Sacred ForestContinue reading “Under Attack!”
The Peacemaker Challenge
When you’re insulted respond with compassion, listening first, speaking with insight into the roots of that person’s distress. Not that it’s easy. Not that it’s normal. Take self off-center, then humbly reach out to crush the hard walls that maintain division. Be like your Savior, the great Prince of Peace: who purchased our peace byContinue reading “The Peacemaker Challenge”
Crystal Clean
Sweeping and dusting will never be enough. Redecorating schemes are all disasters: mock renewals, clever coverups. I need an undivided heart: no padlocked chambers set aside for resident anger, no halls of hard-core selfishness, no darkened corners for illicit pleasures. Instead, give me one room, wide and filled with light, walls scrubbed crystal clean, whollyContinue reading “Crystal Clean”
Worldwide Easter
Today they sing in Singapore and raise their arms to praise the Lord in Tokyo and Mexico and many many many more – in Ethiopia they shout and ululate in South Sudan; in Michigan the lights come out and colors play across the scene to show what we’re so glad about – the Nyarafolo celebrateContinue reading “Worldwide Easter”
What He Wants!
every weakness self-pity selfishness laziness procrastination opportunities lost hurts inflicted back-stabbing shaming ungracious picky hateful oozing wounds misunderstood betrayed minimized maligned ignored soul suffering lonely depressed battered deceived undressed all fell on him the crushing weight of meanness corruption pain despair thank you seems so small to say so minimal against the mass of griefContinue reading “What He Wants!”
Learning Mercy
God with us, full of grace, full of truth, you are who I long for! I yearn to be like you at long last. You’re changing me, curing me of sin and selfishness. You taught me service, then sent me to my sister’s side, to simply be there, waiting to serve her any way sheContinue reading “Learning Mercy”
Linnea's Lines 