Can anything good come out of Nazareth? — John 1:46

It’s a speck
On the map
Nazareth
Let’s recap:

It was home
To a mere
300
(so I hear)

Nothing big
Nothing key
Just a spot
Zilch to see

Yet from there
Came the Christ
Who for us:
Sacrificed

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This year for the A-to-Z challenge, I’m challenging myself to write a Cethramtu Rannaigechta Moire every day. I can’t pronounce it, but I can tell you that it’s an Irish poetic form that requires 3 syllable lines in quatrains. The second and fourth lines rhyme.

Additionally, I’ve been collecting questions for a few years — specifically questions from the Bible. I have so many questions.

Turns out the Bible is full of questions.

So, I’m using questions from the Gospel of John for this challenge.

“Simon, son of John, do you love me…?” John 21:15, 17

Oh, the ache
To be asked
This question
Three times! Cast

Your net! Catch
Some fish — these
Were easy!
Yes, a breeze

Compared with
Do you love
Me? It hurts
To think of

Peter — so
Brash, headstrong
Impulsive
Sometimes wrong

Forced to think
And reply
Yes, yes, yes —
You know I

Do. You know
Ev’rything.
Follow you?
Anything!

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This year for the A-to-Z challenge, I’m challenging myself to write a Cethramtu Rannaigechta Moire every day. I can’t pronounce it, but I can tell you that it’s an Irish poetic form that requires 3 syllable lines in quatrains. The second and fourth lines rhyme.

Additionally, I’ve been collecting questions for a few years — specifically questions from the Bible. I have so many questions.

Turns out the Bible is full of questions.

So, I’m using questions from the Gospel of John for this challenge.

Confession: I got stuck on K. It sits in my draft folder, half-written. I’ll circle back — but, for now, I’m moving on with L.

Who are you? John 1:19

Who are you?
Who are you
Really? What
Do you do

That makes you
You — unique
Distinctive
So to speak

Why are you?
What is your
Purpose? What
Are you for?

Who are you
Really? Know
Yourself. Be
You. Now go.

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This year for the A-to-Z challenge, I’m challenging myself to write a Cethramtu Rannaigechta Moire every day. I can’t pronounce it, but I can tell you that it’s an Irish poetic form that requires 3 syllable lines in quatrains. The second and fourth lines rhyme.

Additionally, I’ve been collecting questions for a few years — specifically questions from the Bible. I have so many questions.

Turns out the Bible is full of questions.

So, I’m using questions from the Gospel of John for this challenge.

How can these things be? John 3:9

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Don’t explain
Don’t even
Try to — Just
Believe in

Mystery
“The wind blows…
You hear it…”
But who knows

Where and why
It begins
And ends, or
How earth spins

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This year for the A-to-Z challenge, I’m challenging myself to write a Cethramtu Rannaigechta Moire every day. I can’t pronounce it, but I can tell you that it’s an Irish poetic form that requires 3 syllable lines in quatrains. The second and fourth lines rhyme.

Additionally, I’ve been collecting questions for a few years — specifically questions from the Bible. I have a big problem with people who think they know everything, especially religious people.

The more someone thinks they know God, the converse is true. I know less about God today than I did last year or five years or twenty-five years ago. I have so many questions.

Turns out the Bible is full of questions.

So, I’m using questions from the Gospel of John for this challenge.

 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves...”
John 6:42-43

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When something
Doesn’t make
Sense — grumble,
Complain,  take

Offense. Right?
Life revolves
Around you
And involves

You even
If it does
Not. We’re so
Blind because

We can’t see
We can’t know
We think we
Do — but no

Take a breath
Take a sec
Think a bit
Doublecheck

Open eyes
Open heart
Grumble not
That’s a start

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This year for the A-to-Z challenge, I’m challenging myself to write a Cethramtu Rannaigechta Moire every day. I can’t pronounce it, but I can tell you that it’s an Irish poetic form that requires 3 syllable lines in quatrains. The second and fourth lines rhyme.

Additionally, I’ve been collecting questions for a few years — specifically questions from the Bible. I have a big problem with people who think they know everything, especially religious people.

The more someone thinks they know God, the converse is true. I know less about God today than I did last year or five years or twenty-five years ago. I have so many questions.

Turns out the Bible is full of questions.

So, I’m using questions from the Gospel of John for this challenge.

But we’re not
Slaves! This makes
No sense. Free?
But it takes

Shackles to
Make a man
A slave! Us?
No one can

Enslave us!
We are strong!
We are free!
You are WRONG!

Ah, dear one —
You protest
Too much
In me rest

The truth will
Set you free —
Free indeed
You shall be

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They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
John 8:33

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This year for the A-to-Z challenge, I’m challenging myself to write a Cethramtu Rannaigechta Moire every day. I can’t pronounce it, but I can tell you that it’s an Irish poetic form that requires 3 syllable lines in quatrains. The second and fourth lines rhyme.

Additionally, I’ve been collecting questions for a few years — specifically questions from the Bible. I have a big problem with people who think they know everything, especially religious people.

The more someone thinks they know God, the converse is true. I know less about God today than I did last year or five years or twenty-five years ago. I have so many questions.

Turns out the Bible is full of questions.

So, I’m using questions from the Gospel of John for this challenge.

Hey — do you
Understand
What this is?
Please expand

My knowledge!
My small brain
Cannot grasp
(all in vain)

Mystery
And You are
Conundrum
Far afar

Yet You are
Also near —
In my dreams
You appear!

But I am
So perplexed
Please tell me —
What comes next?

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So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.”
John 16:18

I love this confession by the disciples — “We don’t know what he’s talking about.”

And I love even more that Jesus didn’t force them to ask the question. He knew what they were wondering and tackled it, explaining to them what He meant.

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This year for the A-to-Z challenge, I’m challenging myself to write a Cethramtu Rannaigechta Moire every day. I can’t pronounce it, but I can tell you that it’s an Irish poetic form that requires 3 syllable lines in quatrains. The second and fourth lines rhyme.

Additionally, I’ve been collecting questions for a few years — specifically questions from the Bible. I have a big problem with people who think they know everything, especially religious people.

The more someone thinks they know God, the converse is true. I know less about God today than I did last year or five years or twenty-five years ago. I have so many questions.

Turns out the Bible is full of questions.

Dear Lord God,
Do I miss
The questions?
What is this

That I want
Most? Am I
Afraid to
Ask You? Why?

Yet You ask,
Sally, do
You want this?
Though You knew —

Long before
Your query –
You’ve known I’m
Too weary

To even
Realize
How good You
Are — and wise

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Do you want to be healed? John 5:6

This is one of my favorite exchanges in John.

We’re introduced to a man who has been an invalid for 38 years. Jesus asks him, “Do you want to be healed?” which is a simple yes or no, but his answer is haunting and heart-breaking — “Sir, I have no one…”

So Jesus heals him.

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This year for the A-to-Z challenge, I’m challenging myself to write a Cethramtu Rannaigechta Moire every day. I can’t pronounce it, but I can tell you that it’s an Irish poetic form that requires 3 syllable lines in quatrains. The second and fourth lines rhyme.

Additionally, I’ve been collecting questions for a few years — specifically questions from the Bible. I have a big problem with people who think they know everything, especially religious people.

The more someone thinks they know God, the converse is true. I know less about God today than I did last year or five years or twenty-five years ago. I have so many questions.

Turns out the Bible is full of questions.

So, I’m using questions from the Gospel of John for this challenge.