Called Up

Jesus departed with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him; hearing all that he was doing, they came to him in great numbers from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan, and the region around Tyre and Sidon. He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him; for he had cured many, so that all who had diseases pressed upon him to touch him. Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and shouted, “You are the Son of God!” But he sternly ordered them not to make him known.

He went up the mountain and called to him those whom he wanted, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, and to have authority to cast out demons. So he appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); James son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot. Mark 3:7-19a 

Called Up

Sometimes the losses and the leavings
the storms and all too reality of aging
crush the spirit we started out with
mask the love that still resides so very deep.

We were called up to the mountain
a rough and uneven climb made with joy
our steps were light and ever innocent
we sang and laughed along the way.

The thunder has left our spirits now
we sag low with the work before us
the heights seems more impossible
the songs too high for our voices.

We are called up now and again
to be renamed and sent out again
watch the ancient eagles soar for now
gather in the light obscured by shadows.