He was not friendly,
And I am left to decide
What to make of that fact―
Whether he is never friendly,
Or whether it was just today
And whether it was his specific
Response to me, or whether it had
Nothing whatsoever to do with me at all.
And I doubt whether in that unfriendly moment,
The man had had any idea what wondering
It would unleash in this inquiring mind.
And I have probably given it more
Thought already than he will
Give it for the rest of this
Most beautiful day.
That church of yours has sure got
A strong conviction about how the women
Need to submit to the men.
It’s as if that conviction were God-powered―
Set on fire by the Spirit of God himself,
And burning bright within your souls,
Always to be honored, and never questioned.
And how interesting this is, for
I have seen a grievous evil under the sun, inasmuch as
That church of yours seems simultaneously clueless
To the fact that the very same God has commanded
All the men to submit to Christ in everything―
Including how they treat the women and children.
People are messy, and once you’ve got some years under your belt, it’s really not all that hard to find some fault in what they say or do, in their attitudes or beliefs about things. If you pay much attention at all to someone, it’s likely that it won’t be long at all before you know better than something they’re doing, thinking, or saying. And at the moment you realize that you know better, if you’re like most people, you’re very likely to make some irrational leaps in your mind. You can easily make the unjustified mental leap from “I know better in this…” to other thoughts and attitudes such as:
All that suffering in your life
At the hands of imperfect people,
And you decided you’d had enough―
That love just wasn’t worth it
If there was going to be any further
Chance of pain.
I saw this meme posted on Facebook and what follows is my response.
The meme seems to presuppose that people are either 100% real or 100% fake, when in actuality, we are a mixed bag—maybe 100% real about this, but not about that.
Continue readingBefore the kettle whistles,
Disturbing everyone in the house,
He lets out whispers
That a keen attendant may hear―
And spare everyone the interruption.
He had gotten to where he was
By putting out of his mind so far
That stupidest of presuppositions―
That he had more or less arrived already
At where he needed to be.
I don’t mean to be salty about it, but
It is difficult to explain what took me twenty years
Of study, contemplation, and debate to understand
Such that it is impossible for you to dismiss it
In your twenty seconds of noticing that it disagrees
With what you already believe.
Just because you can walk up to Jesus
Doesn’t mean you can long stand with him eye to eye.
Just because you present yourself at church
Doesn’t mean you’ve got what it takes
To be invited at length into his eternal home.
Why do some rush to fix
Something so great as country,
Being yet unwilling to fix even themselves?
