By the Rivers

We came ready for this life.

Beginnings and endings

this child of kings and queensthis queen, matriarchthis king, leadercarrying stories in bucketswaters from deep wellsdrawn dailyto quench my thirstfor freea foretaste of gloryI will see this is my storythis is my song I am a laborerin the fieldsworking the landwith hands numbfingers callousedback bent to the sunno time to weepchildren cannot eat tearsthis?this is […]Read Post ›

they could feel the restlessness of oncoming changethe years were present in their eyesthey saw the goodness of living across the agestheirs was clear vision of what life could bethey knew all the ways to be free their knowing was incompletethis knowledge needed was beyond the selfthey answered ancient calls they heardnoises heard in voices […]Read Post ›

My father was a quiet man whose booming voice was a surprise when he opened his mouth, of him we said upon his death: “He did it his way.” On his 86th birthday on January 22, 2021, I found myself a bit melancholy. This was his first birthday since his death. In the months since […]Read Post ›

Antonyms of Complicity was written as a keynote speech for a consultation of mission and evangelism in Bangkok, Thailand in November 2017. The event was hosted by the World Council of Churches and the Council for World Mission. These days, I have found myself reflecting on what the church is called to be in this […]Read Post ›

Four years ago, while boarding a plane from Atlanta to Cleveland, I waited patiently on line, ready to get home. I was on the last leg of travel home. I was tired. As I waited on the priority line, a white male came walking across the gate house from the far side and stood in […]Read Post ›

i remember the first time as if it were yesterday eight months pregnant a walking watermelon slowly moving through the heat of a southern summer framed by carolina blue skies on the stale humid air it came: “look at that nigg**” and there they were four – blond haired – barely teenaged – males sitting […]Read Post ›