Month: May 2009

Had a Dream…

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I had a dream several days ago that I keep meaning to write down because for some reason I can’t forget it.
 
It was an average dream but unusual for me simply because it was average. Here’s how it went:
 
I walked through the bedroom door to the deck and leaned on the railing. I looked out and as far as the eye could see was green flat prairie under a bright overcast sky. In the distance on the horizon a fair ways off I saw eight tornados form in a row. I knew they were all headed my way. Not sure how. No sense of fear or worry but a great sense of needing to be prepared.
 
Then I woke up. Weird. That’s it.
 
I like to joke that I am the world’s worst prophet. If I think it will happen it won’t…guaranteed. So there’s no point in writing my ideas about what the dream might have meant. Maybe it’s simply undigested pizza from the night before. Who knows.

It’s Like That…

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once
as a child
I lay flat
on the bottom
of the pool
looking up
through
the water
and
there was sun
there was air
there was my blue sky
but
I couldn’t move
I couldn’t breathe
paralyzed and panicked
just an observer
awaiting the forever fade
yeah –
          it’s like that…

Life and Death

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I have noticed that we do not fear violence
but rather we embrace cold colosseum
son come watch the gunpowder discharge
daughter see the fists and knives in 1080p
look as the children of God kill each other
in high definition
 
and
      be
          entertained
 
I have noticed that we run from sex
we hide small eyes from
                                    the unclothed Adam
                                    the unclothed Eve
this is too much for you – BE AFRAID
 
I pondered these things for some time
realizing the truth in it all
we we have always run from the creative in ourselves
always hid from bright light
and held the dead things tight
like dark cloaks covering our shame-
that we, like Him, can bring forth life
but chose death in its stead.
 
it makes sense
there is so much more power in life
so little in death

Robin’s Egg Sky

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blue is my robin’s egg
tipped upside down
and held above my head
 
my sky is a shell
that hides life
protecting it
from reaching hands

Wandering Whistle

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a wandering whistle
long lone shrill
a cold hollow tune
swings out from dark
                         earth’s end
no trumpet this
but
like the wind
small breath of song
mournful wail
seeks the faithful
in a faithless land
sharp notes like ice
like tears that roll
like tears that rip
falling lyrical
finding that
between a rock
and a hard place
                        is nothing
                        is hell
dry and empty

Lyrics

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I like lyrics. I like them almost as much as I like the music itself. I like the lyrics to Journey’s song – Don’t Stop Believing. You should listen to them – I think you would like them too. If you are reading this in Facebook I posted the video to my blog: http://poet.spaces.live.com .

Waiting

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Waiting. We have rooms designated for it. It is as though we need four walls to contain us while we wait. I do not like waiting. I quite despise it if I am being honest. We wait for many things and in the meantime we try to keep busy with jobs and lives and hobbies and things. Some people seem destined for certain things and certain times. Winston Churchill seemed made to lead Britain in WW2. As though if WW2 had not come along he would have ended up as some irrated angry man running a private boys school somewhere always wondering why he felt as though something were missing. Always wondering why things nagged at him so.
 
The disciples waited for Christ to return. They waited and they waited and they waited. For the most part they did not wait patiently. You can even read the impatience between the lines of scripture. There was a sense that He would come at anytime. That perhaps tomorrow was the day but most certainly within their lives. Their impatience was so great that it comes through the pages of God’s inspired word.
 
What happens to a man destined for greatness if the times do not oblige him? Simeon was promised he would hold in his arms the Messiah, the Son of God. He was even told that he would not die until this came to pass. How must it have been for him to wait for this? He was an old man when it finally happened.
 
I think how we wait is a test of our faith in what we are waiting for. I am guessing that Simeon waited patiently. His words uttered in the Gospel of Luke after having finally been given the child messiah to hold suggest a person of trust and faith:
Lord, now you let your servant depart in peace according to your word.

For my eyes have seen your salvation,

which you have prepared before the face of all people,

a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel.

The question we should ask ourselves is not "what" are you waiting for but rather "how" are you waiting for it?

When Faith & Politics Collide

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The latest survey from the Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life has found a disturbing figure. 62 percent of white, evangelical Protestants in the United States say the use of torture is sometimes justifiable compared with just 40 percent of the religiously unaffilitaed. This is radically backwards. There is nothing in scripture to support this attitude. Torture is wrong.
 
So if the Bible does not support torture where do these Christians get there ideas from? They get them from the world, particularly the political world. This is what happens when religion and politics begin to mix. When Christians are supposed to be Republicans. When this happens we begin to assume that the political world we are affiliated with teaches us the same things Christ does. It does not. It works the same way when Mainline Christians assume they are supposed to be Democrats too.
 
I have been teaching lately on the imitation of Christ and why that is so important. How imitating Christ offers the world a living vision of God. When Christians support things like torture the world assumes we’re still imitating and emulating Christ.
 
Do not trust that the world fully overlaps with your faith in the areas you assume it does. Do the work yourself and do not rely on political parties to line up with your faith. Read the Bible for yourself, pray through it and decide in conversation (midrash) with other faithful Christians friends what God meant when He said "love your enemies".
 
For a Christian to support torture is nonsense.

The Sky Crawlers

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I would like to get this newly released anime film called The Sky Crawlers. Has some fantastic themes explored like youth angst and apathy as well as a culture willing to fabricate war for entertainment. There’s a good article about it here:

Creation? Evolution? Intelligent Design? What Would Augustine Have Said?

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A little of all or none at all? Such a wonderfully controversial topic how could I not weigh in on it? Here is a link too an absolutely fantastic article on the debate published by Christianity Today by scholar and theologian Alistair McGrath. The article plumbs the mind of Augustine foor some wonderful insights we should all apply to our reading of scripture. Let me know what you think?