Church pews carry so much.
\nHow many toddlers have rested their pudgy bodies on you?
\nWhat did they dream of as the angels whispered prophecy in their ears?
\nHow many hot tears have spilled on you?
\nWhat stories did the tears tell?<\/p>\n
You held us during the moments when we first believe
\nand all of the moments when we have doubted.
\nYou kept us steady when we were overcome with the Holy Spirit and our feet got light.
\nSupported us when the weights we carried were simply too much.
\nYou have always pointed us in the direction of the altar no matter who
\noccupied the pulpit.
\nIn the back you offered us welcome and distance.
\nIn the front you offered us access and heat.<\/p>\n
Your existence is evidence of long-winded preachers
\nand the howling silence that sometimes follows prayers.
\nYou help us wait on the Lord
\nand help us gird ourselves for battle.
\nYou offer us rest,
\nand get us a little closer to the prostrate position of holy submission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Church pews carry so much. How many toddlers have rested their pudgy bodies on you? What did they dream of as the angels whispered prophecy in their ears? How many hot tears have spilled on you? What stories did the tears tell? You held us…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4411,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4411"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136324"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136381,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136324\/revisions\/136381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}