to whisper a dream to God with your eyes

closed under the Texas sun?

Have you spread your devotion

flat like an iron before the Earth?

Did you wake up this morning

and realize the miracle of your breath?

Did you go to bed with

the whisper of eternity in your ear?

Have you given all your thanks

for the food you are eating

but slice away like screaming cats

the voices of millions who go hungry?

Did you steal and cheat and lie

and commiserate over the hole

in your sock over a latte while counting

your dividend?

So what if you are grateful for your food?

¹ Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:

² “Who is this that obscures my plans
   with words without knowledge?
³ Brace yourself like a man;
   I will question you,
   and you shall answer me.

 ⁴ “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
   Tell me, if you understand.
⁵ Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
   Who stretched a measuring line across it?
⁶ On what were its footings set,
   or who laid its cornerstone—
⁷ while the morning stars sang together
   and all the angels shouted for joy?

 ⁸ “Who shut up the sea behind doors
   when it burst forth from the womb,
⁹ when I made the clouds its garment
   and wrapped it in thick darkness,
¹⁰ when I fixed limits for it
   and set its doors and bars in place,
¹¹ when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;
   here is where your proud waves halt’?

 ¹² “Have you ever given orders to the morning,
   or shown the dawn its place,
¹³ that it might take the earth by the edges
   and shake the wicked out of it?
¹⁴ The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
   its features stand out like those of a garment.
¹⁵ The wicked are denied their light,
   and their upraised arm is broken.

 ¹⁶ “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
   or walked in the recesses of the deep?
¹⁷ Have the gates of death been shown to you?
   Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?
¹⁸ Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
   Tell me, if you know all this.

 ¹⁹ “What is the way to the abode of light?
   And where does darkness reside?
²⁰ Can you take them to their places?
   Do you know the paths to their dwellings?
²¹ Surely you know, for you were already born!
   You have lived so many years!

 ²² “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow
   or seen the storehouses of the hail,
²³ which I reserve for times of trouble,
   for days of war and battle?
²⁴ What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,
   or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
²⁵ Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,
   and a path for the thunderstorm,
²⁶ to water a land where no one lives,
   an uninhabited desert,
²⁷ to satisfy a desolate wasteland
   and make it sprout with grass?
²⁸ Does the rain have a father?
   Who fathers the drops of dew?
²⁹ From whose womb comes the ice?
   Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens
³⁰ when the waters become hard as stone,
   when the surface of the deep is frozen?

 ³¹ “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades?
   Can you loosen Orion’s belt?
³² Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons
   or lead out the Bear with its cubs?
³³ Do you know the laws of the heavens?
   Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?

 ³⁴ “Can you raise your voice to the clouds
   and cover yourself with a flood of water?
³⁵ Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
   Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
³⁶ Who gives the ibis wisdom
   or gives the rooster understanding?
³⁷ Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?
   Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens
³⁸ when the dust becomes hard
   and the clods of earth stick together?

 ³⁹ “Do you hunt the prey for the lioness
   and satisfy the hunger of the lions
⁴⁰ when they crouch in their dens
   or lie in wait in a thicket?
⁴¹ Who provides food for the raven
   when its young cry out to God
   and wander about for lack of food?

If you’ve made it this far, I congratulate you.

There may be hope for us yet.