tears know me

not as cascades

but as sighs

as moist corners

of leaking glands

yearning to scrub

and clean my eyes

clear of crusted years

of dirt-mound mem'ries

and dulled emotions

which like muzzled dogs

strain to romp and bark

with a freedom found

chiseled in the heart

*Reflections of Alan Jones:

  -All of this has some serious implications for the way in which believers spread the good news.  It requires a rigorous honesty in the way human beings experience the world.  The first conversion is important as the first step on a long journey, and the different churches can help each other to emphasize this first step.  It may well be that those churches which understand themselves as catholic and sacramentally oriented have neglected the first conversion too much.  They tend to take it for granted and hope that people will want to walk in the Way by a sort of osmosis.  The evangelical churches, alas, know of little else but the first conversion.  We need all three.  The first calls on us to be born again, the second and third invite us to grow up into "the fullness of the stature of Christ."

  -Unless there is a change and renewal from within that takes into account the hurts and tragedies of human life the second and third conversions seek to address, millions will be left with out spiritual sustenance.

  -Human longings and human needs are much the same everywhere, regardless of class or education.