Share This! Spoken Word by IWU Student Carlye Arden

At a recent chapel at IWU a student leader spoke at the last chapel before Thanksgiving. As we enter into the Advent season I wanted to share with you some of that chapel. It was a great time of praise and worship.  Carlye Arden shares a spoken word that she wrote at that chapel last week. I want to invite you to read it and share this.

Carlye shared with me recently a bit about the chapel she was part of.

Monday’s chapel was awesome because it was different. The monotony of life, especially on IWU’s campus, can become drudgery and I savor the opportunities where I can be utilized as a vessel to breathe vibrancy into others. Rachel Rubadiri is actually the mastermind behind this chapel event. She came to me and asked me to write some pieces that would be raw and real, something that the student body could really chew on. A band will never sound good if it doesn’t have a good conductor, no matter how good each individual player is. Rachel was an awesome Maestro, and I was so honored to play in her band. I believe that Rachel’s vision was to get the student body engaged in a way they never had been engaged before which would then force people out of their comfort zones. Rachel wanted the spoken word to be a calling out to the Lord and then the worship songs to be his response to us.

The spoken word is defined by Carlye;

Again, spoken word is a different form of worship because the audience has to be quiet and it gives the Lord a stage to speak, but the person who delivers the poetry has to be prayerful during the writing process. And that is always my intention when I am writing on a specific topic for a certain group of people. I am always prayerful in the writing process because I want to make sure that what the Lord wants said comes before what I want said.

As students turn their attentions to those final projects and finals I want to invite you to prayer for them this week.  It is a stressful time and I am sure that many students would appreciate your prayers. In fact, as you commit to pray for students, SHARE THIS post on your facebook or twitter.

Carlye Arden wrote:

All of this to say,
Do not be afraid.
No one can tell you what to do though…
So then I guess take the things I am saying with a grain of salt.
It is just my two cents worth,
Or maybe just my nonsense worth…
But If you are feeling how I am feeling,
then I know the burden of life must be heavy on you.
I want to help carry the strain of this and walk hand in hand next to the emptiness you hold
and maybe if your cup is hollow,
then please allow my tears to pour over into your glass
because sometimes, as I have learned,
we have to cry tear droplets for two
all the while praising his name through and through.
So let me love you freely.
I will give Satan a steely gaze if he ever tries to touch you
and then he will know that The Holy Spirit is going to beat the living hell out of him if he ever comes near again.
“Though I walk through The Valley of the Shadow of Death I fear no evil
because Jesus is the baddest dude in the valley
and he is going to mess some demons up if they try to come within a ten mile radius of us”
I am pretty sure that verse is in the Bible somewhere-
at least that is my interpretation.
There will be victory.
There is victory.
We will fight in the infantry
and we carry weapons of mass destruction in the
form of manifest destiny
as we daily make our way towards eternity.
Fight with Honor my beloved sisters and brothers,
and I will fight all of your battles alongside you in the form of prayer.
Receiving Strength from the throngs in the crowded streets
Shouting out a battle cry of
“We are a broken people!”
With Jesus leading the procession
For it is here
RIGHT HERE.
That there is freedom.
It is not given because of the way in which we come but by the way in which we are received
but freedom is only constituted by a willingness to seek it.
So I will search with a magnifying glass over every square inch of this broken land
until I unearth the secret of how to turn the safety on my rifle off
so that I can set my guns a blazin’ in the direction of those God-Forsaken demons
who haunt you in your sleep
and hide away as werewolves dressed in clothing made from the other sheep
who fell into the feint of fear that that Fiend found useful to fetter the faithful.
we are going to burn away your fears
and you will be able to finally rest in peace knowing
that our Father has bitten off more than we could ever chew just for the purpose of saving
you.
So take heart my brothers and sisters,
for with each lonely day that has passed know that a Hope has finally come at last.
But Honestly, He has been here for awhile…
And He bursts forth with guns a blazin’
all the while raising up an army whose artillery looks a little something like love!
And when push comes to shove I am going to shovel the dirt over my grave and bury myself as a slave
for once I am raised from the dead all the
stains will be washed away
and all the chains will fall away
and all the heaviness will float away
and then not even gravity can keep my spirit grounded here on earth for very long
for my loft’s lofty thoughts belong to the heavens
because I know if I tried to mentally contain all of his mass
my brain would burst forth into a million tender pieces
because something so small as the gray matter that holds countenance in my skull
could never contain something
so perpetual,
so interminable,
so immeasurable,
so immense,
so enormous,
so infinite,
so eternal and
so boundless.
A love so bottomless that even the depths of the oceans could not surmount to the supreme sum of it.
So all of this to say,
Even when it is all quiet on the western front,
do not be afraid
and maybe now my two cents is worth more like three cents.
Even still,
all of my nonsense combined amounts to
nothing
in the grand scheme of
the uncountable debt that was paid.
And thats ok,
because one day,
I’m gonna be chillin’ with Jesus
because he has traded everything for
Nothing
and therefore
nothing
can persuade me more than his love that has cascaded down
and freed me from dancing fruitlessly in a destitute masquerade.
And I would not trade His gift for
anything.
You think I’m bluffing?
Try drinking from his ferociously tender waterfall…
And then tell me if that is not the best kind of drowning.

At IWU today we can be encouraged that students are deeply interested in the things of God. We can be excited that our students are experiencing a rich chapel experience where God meets them!

This Advent, I challenge all of us to come to this Christmas season with hearts of anticipation!

Perhaps you may want to also try to steal away time alone and invite the Holy Spirit to give you a word that you may also share.  Carlye says about her role and poetry;

Everyone in the crowd is quiet (which is not normal for the culture of today) and they are watching a Father connect to his daughter in a way that is so tangible you could reach out and grab it as if it were some type of rope and then from watching my connection to the Lord, it allows them to make a connection as well. And there is the beauty of it all.

Have a wonderful Advent season!

 

 

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