Jack Pelham

I have seen kids afraid.
Afraid of me.
Afraid of one another.
Afraid to think.
Afraid to wonder.
Afraid to be uncomfortable.
Afraid to invest themselves.
Afraid to take a chance.
Afraid to get it wrong.
Afraid to get it right.
Afraid to miss out.
Afraid to join in.
Afraid to love.
Afraid to be loved.

This world is tired
Of the lessons unlearned—
Still before us and signaling our shame
After all these centuries
Of stubborn neglect.

Where did we ever get the idea that
Our angry complaints about corruption
Are a better use of our time
Than would be actual reform?

Being so poor at reflection as
Our culture teaches us to be.
Surely, we overlook many things
About that wonderful life in the Garden—

And this one glorious difference
Between our life and theirs
Occurs to me just now.

They had no market,
No ads.
No salesmen.

Except that one, of course—
Who unleashed transgression
On this world,
And taught man greed and pride
And all manner of vile things
The remain to this day.

And I think it’s no wonder
That God should be so excited
About the stars—
That he would pluck them out
Of this darkness and take them
To his house when they are done here.

She was so utterly and absolutely willing
To take his word for it.
And, as far as we have been told,
It never once crossed her mind
That she might verify what he said
Before choosing to believe it.

He rushes to generalize,
Thinking he has not the time
To determine the exact
Truth of the matter.
And he does not see
That this has become for him
A way of life.

For most, Christianity is an inherited religion, replete with assumptions that are rarely put to the test. Among them are frequently things like these:

1. The contents of the Bible are all settled as per God’s wishes, and are accurately translated.
2. Any ancient extrabiblical works should be handled with great care, if handled at all.
3. We are now living, more or less, in the same spiritual context as were those in New Testament times.
4. God is still running the church as he did in New Testament times.
5. My church is probably the best one.
6. The Holy Spirit helps us internally to understand the Bible correctly. If we were wrong about something, God would have told us.
7. The preacher is God’s chosen leader, and God gives him/her the words to preach to us.

Perhaps these assumptions are good ones. Or perhaps they are bad ones. But a people who do not vet them for themselves are apt never to know whether they are good or bad.

QUESTION: Did God mean for us to do our own thinking and investigating, or are we just supposed to blindly accept the way things are framed for us at church?

If you were all-in,
There’s no telling
What we could do.

There’s no telling
What we could solve
And what we could overcome
Together.

I told him he wasn’t listening.
And he ignored that, too.

By a stroke of undeserved luck,
I knew a very nice lady
Who had known this man—
At whom we all wonder
For how he made such good use
Of the mind God gave him.