{"id":1581,"date":"2014-04-16T20:43:10","date_gmt":"2014-04-17T00:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/?p=1581"},"modified":"2014-04-16T20:43:10","modified_gmt":"2014-04-17T00:43:10","slug":"jim-ayers-skin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/?p=1581","title":{"rendered":"[Jim Ayers] Skin"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote style=\"background-color: #ececed;\"><p>We are honored to share a poem by Jim Ayers, a good friend of the Green Street Girls and a beloved and tirelessly active member of Trinity United Methodist Church in Durham. He is originally from Georgia, but Durham has claimed him for a long time.<\/p>\n<p>Holy Week blessings from your friends at Profligate Grace. &#8211; ALH and KNS<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It was a cold place and the wind blew strong enough to peel the skin from my bones.<br \/>\nI begged for a warm house and a roaring fire in a hearth.<br \/>\nHe gave me a coat.<\/p>\n<p>It was a dry place and the sun would have burned the skin from my bones.<br \/>\nI begged for a cold stream, a smooth pool to wash away the heat.<br \/>\nHe gave me a cup of tepid water.<\/p>\n<p>It was a lonesome place and emptiness would have shriveled the skin from my bones.<br \/>\nI begged for a party with friends who loved me.<br \/>\nHe gave me a singing bird at my window.<\/p>\n<p>It was a hurting place and pain would have peeled the skin from my bones.<br \/>\nI begged for a balm on my soul to soothe away the agony.<br \/>\nHe gave me a night of troubled sleep.<\/p>\n<p>It was a raging place and the anger would have cut the skin from my bones.<br \/>\nI begged for a sword to drive away my enemy.<br \/>\nHe gave me tears.<\/p>\n<p>Why! Why!<br \/>\nJust a coat and not a fireplace?<br \/>\nJust a cup and not a pool?<br \/>\nJust a bird and not a party?<br \/>\nJust sleep and not a balm?<br \/>\nJust tears and not a sword?<br \/>\nWhy?<\/p>\n<p>He showed me a whip and thorns.<br \/>\nHe showed me nails and a spear.<br \/>\nHe showed me lashed, torn, skin with wounds and punctures.<br \/>\n\u201cWhat are these things?\u201d I asked Him, \u201cMust I look at them?\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cI will take the coat and cup and bird and sleep and tears.<br \/>\n\u201cThey are enough.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then He put me in a house,<br \/>\nWith a fireplace and a pool,<br \/>\nFriends and good conversation,<br \/>\nPeace and safety.<br \/>\nAnd He gave me new skin, smooth, unwounded, strong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are honored to share a poem by Jim Ayers, a good friend of the Green Street Girls and a beloved and tirelessly active member of Trinity United Methodist Church in Durham. He is originally from Georgia, but Durham has claimed him for a long time. Holy Week blessings from your friends at Profligate Grace. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[119],"class_list":["post-1581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-guestposts","tag-holy-week"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7EotM-pv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1581"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1586,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1581\/revisions\/1586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.profligategrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}