Jack Pelham

If you want to get anything good done,
There’s just no way around having
People of good character to do it.

Much of our history, ironically, is the story
Of people searching for another way—
But not finding it—
And of lots of people wondering why
Things are so lousy—
Never having perceived the obvious
Cause of their troubles.

There could be more, but here are two common reasons the boy can’t swim.

1. Nobody ever taught him how.
2. He never figured it out himself.

It’s a funny thing how we Christians can be gloriously right about the one thing,
and still quite wrong about another. One can put his finger on a truth you should have seen
a thousand times over by now, and still not be seeing a right thing you’ve pointed out to others
a thousand times over the years.

Surely, there are some among us who do not love the truth at all, but are there not many who,
when they are right, are right quite on purpose, and for love of truth?

How sad, then, that still we are so wrong about so much.

Those who don’t know what pride is
Are the most likely to unjustly brand
Others with that label.

To them, “Pride” simply must be
What is behind your
Disagreeing with them,
Even if God himself
Disagrees with them, too.

If they can offend you with the truth,
Something is twisted inside you.

Indeed, why would the truth
Not be a blessing to you?

You cannot know how all the facts fit together until you know all the facts.

Therefore, you should know this about yourself:

Your brain has faculties for making sense from the information it has. It can fill in the gaps, guess at patterns, and imagine reasons for why things are as they seem to be. And sometimes, you’ll be right. But many times, you’ll be wrong because you settled for an inaccurate interpretation, probably made from insufficient information. And you can keep on in that wrong belief for the rest of your life, adamantly defending it, even, and shunning those who oppose it.

Suppose a man just wanted to talk. Suppose he wanted to explore the world in conversation with others and get into the deep things of life—the wisdom of the ages.

But suppose he lived in a culture where, for whatever reason, almost nobody else had such a desire. And suppose that of those who did have that desire, very few were any good at it. Suppose they were clumsy with their reasoning and hamfisted in their attempts to explain the fine details of whatever they mean. Suppose they had limited and dull vocabularies, and little experience at having deep rapport and trust with other people. And suppose they were already oversensitive from sour conflicts with others in the past.

Of a thousand injustices that happen on our watch,
We may perceive but a few—
Even while thinking ourselves keen watchmen
And being fiercely adamant about some of them.

There is nothing about the Bible
That keeps the fools away.
You’ll find them in the pews
And pulpits alike, making their own use
Of what it says and doesn’t say,
As if they had every bit as much right
To do that as the wise have
To wrestle with the truth of it all.

When I read the Bible,
I see the story of a few
Who were listening to God
And of many who were not—
Some of whom kept insisting they were,
Even as God disagreed—
Which just goes to show they weren’t.