Read On
11 The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
I climbed the mountain of loneliness
like a cripple
swinging on the crutches of dead limbs
And I sat down in the wound that widens all hearts...
My sin against you
I have sought you for myself
For my own pleasure
And I have measured your greatness by my blessing
I have forsaken your word
And treated it as a dead word
Except for the words that spoke the desires of my own heart
Except for the words that tripped like phrases of beauty from my own lips
I have not said the difficult words
"Take up thy cross"
I have not repeated to myself or sung with joy "Deny thyself"
I do not like the graveyard truth: "Unless a man dies to himself, he cannot be my disciple".
So I sit on this side of the mountain in the wound of my own pleasure
The sun scorched earth all around me
And shade myself with flowers and streams of water
To make me forget my own condition.
I have proclaimed a fast to you
A fast that will bring me pleasure and keep me safe
I fast from immorality
I fast from crudeness
I fast from licentiousness
I fast from cursing
I quote your word back to you
And say it to myself til I almost believe it
But you keep coming back to me in loneliness and pain
As if to say...read on.
But I am selfish.
Its all about me.
I refuse to read Isaiah anymore.
I don't understand Isaiah.
That's not me.
But I read...I read on...
"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness [a] will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
"If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The LORD will guide you always;
THEN
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
