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And We Pondered These Things in Our Heart.
I’ve been feeling nostalgic lately, so here is a fictional story about me traveling back seven years to when I was sixteen-year-old. * * * I come striding into the park that nuzzles my neighborhood, the one where I used to walk my dog most days—the only way I could get away from home for Continue reading
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What I Failed to Say: an apology
I have been ill at ease with the blog post that I put up yesterday and I have been searching for the reasons why. I think I’ve found them: First, I dismissed people’s motives as incidental to the lovingness of an action. Second, I wrote in a cavalier manner in which I failed to be Continue reading
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Responding to the Gnostics
Seth wrote a great post the other day about two types of gnosticism. He wrote about the charismatic gnostics who have special knowledge from God about people. Specifically, he told a story about being “ambushed” in the library by a group of folks claiming that God told them to pray for Seth. He also wrote Continue reading
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The Spirit of the Silences
for all the promises once made— that God would come in power to set me free—it never happened. i was expecting a thunderstorm, or at least the odd car crash, to shake me from my chains. i heard all about identity and truth and the personal relationship with Jesus. but it never worked. and I Continue reading
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A Mystery
on sinai he came close: heaven passed within a breath. but from our first folly, the way up has been sealed until the cosmic kairos united heaven to earth—a nuclear flash, the first touch— in the groaning strain of two cross-beams. death undoing death unto eternity, the hostility of the universe tamed with the peace Continue reading
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Can not that be the life we live?
Yesterday I read this article. For all of its clear insufficiencies (chief among them being its view of gender roles), something about it resonated with me. It’s like something just clicked. This transformation I’ve been undergoing finally makes some sense. I’m tired of the hodgepodge. I’m tired of the cafeteria faith. I’m tired of narcissistic Continue reading
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And What is the Difference?
Once the shadows raged— dark shapes, cold and ragged, and possessed of infinite hatred and fear. But no more. For even as the light flickered and then died, the shadows melded into one. And what is the difference? Continue reading
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The End
On that loveless december day when Death had covered the sky over with his tattered gray cloak and fire climbed the mountains, on that day—that day of all days— when darkness and light ended their fight and all binaries, large and small, were stitched together, on that day as the burning snow fell across the Continue reading
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Blogging Reset (2)
I said on Monday that the words were back. And they are. Just not the words for regular, consistent blogging. I am having significant trouble convincing myself to care about the arbitrary categories I have set for myself on the blog. I really just want to concentrate on my academic work and on poetry. All Continue reading
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Blogging Reset
Readers, Ever since Holy Saturday, I’ve been quiet on the blog (I did post last Friday). My life got really busy all of a sudden and I ran out of words. I am still busy, but the words are back. I had set a posting schedule for the year that got revised as Lent started. Continue reading
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One Easter Morning (daughter)
not even married that Easter morning as some daddy’s daughter grinned through the alleluias and laughed through the creed. but we knew. those eyes bright and blue first dragged our hearts into the open— that pulsating organ raw and bleeding and full of life— giving your mother and I our first shared case of baby Continue reading
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Holy Saturday
I lied, I guess. I said that I would post everyday of Holy Week except for Saturday, a day in which I would be offline in order to mourn the death of Jesus. It turns out that being offline appeals to me as a poetic gesture, but I didn’t really feel like it. Also, I Continue reading
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Maundy Thursday
With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer. His brother-friends. One final time. Meat and drink and bread against the darkness ascendant. And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them. And let the common become the divine. This is my body which is Continue reading
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Holy Wednesday: Judas Iscariot
I wonder when Satan first proposed the idea and how long Judas held out, how many times he said I can no more betray him than betray myself, but that was a possibility Satan understood only too well. And was it jealousy of the woman at Bethany jealously of the promise that her story would Continue reading
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Holy Tuesday
On Holy Tuesday, the Orthodox Church celebrates the parable of the ten virgins, emphasizing the need to watch and wait–looking forward to the garden. This song is from Jon Thurlow, and I think it captures the sentiment exactly. (Disclaimer: Jon Thurlow is a musician with the International House of Prayer, an organization with which I have serious Continue reading
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Holy Monday
Today is Holy Monday. Traditionally, Jesus’ cursing of the fig tree is celebrated on this day. Growing up, I had no idea what Jesus was up to in this story, but it turns out that the fig tree is a stand-in for Israel. You see, Jesus’ critique of Israel is that it had failed to Continue reading
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Blue as the Depths of God’s Love: a Palm Sunday reflection
As I write, a candle flickers next to me. The kitchen is messy. The sun is setting. I haven’t yet started the book I was supposed to read today—that I decided to read today instead of yesterday or Friday. And yet, I don’t care. I don’t care that tonight will be a late night or Continue reading
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Writing Stories: a meditation
So I wrote a story yesterday. It’s the first real fiction I’ve ever written, and it was part of my attempt to explore a new creative outlet—something I promised to do as part of Lent. And the writing process was good. It was new, unwieldy, and different. I didn’t know what would happen much before Continue reading
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I Need You
Here me Love, when I say: I’m here today in every way that you need me. Do you need me like trees need the wind to dance and spin, to swirl and send, Fall’s colors—that pigmatic skin—to the ground? Do you need me like fish need the sea—or any water really—though the sea is big Continue reading
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And Could Politics Ever be an Expression of Love?
This is a presentation I gave to my American Literature class over the book Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. * * * Milton Moskowitz, in an article entitled “The Enduring Importance of Richard Wright,” recounts a conversation between Richard Wright and James Baldwin. Moskowitz writes, “’All literature is protest,’ said Wright. ‘You can’t name a single Continue reading
About Me
Gregory C. Jeffers
Anglican Christian | Husband | Father | Teacher | Scholar | Poet
G. C. Jeffers 