Skip to main content

take

You will not have this - its mine!
Words that a 5 year-old says when someone reaches for his toy.
Words that a woman shouts when confronted by a thief demanding her purse.
Words that a landowner utters when threatened by an invading king.

You cannot take this away from me!
Words that the slaves sung to remind themselves that freedom can always be carried in your heart.
Words that martyrs cried out as they offered their lives for their beliefs.
Words that lovers whispered when they were parted by war.

Why are you taking this away from me?
Words that Job flung at a God who seemed to be deaf to his pain.
Words that don't know how this can end well.
Words that the chronically downtrodden have forgotten how to form.

Why did I give that up?
Words of regret spoken in hindsight.
Words that cannot bring it back.
Words that reveal powerlessness and perhaps a lack of courage.

Can you help me get it back?
Words that carry hope.
Words that have put aside self-reliance.
Words that refuse to accept injustice as the final answer.
Words that look for another way: not payback, but redemption.

Can I give you some of what I have?
Words that recognise how poor we all are at times.
Words that invite instead of force.
Words that give and receive with equal grace.
Words that open instead of close.
Freedom.
The word that silences all other words.

This is a poem for all those who have had precious things taken away from them in the name of religion, including my father. Let me be one who, instead of taking, learns to give precious things in the name of Jesus.
This is a photo of Dean's empty guitar case.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

comedic timing

Comic by Joel Micah Harris at xkcd.com One of my favourite jokes goes like this: Knock, knock. Who's there? Interrupting cow Interrupting cow w--- Moooooooo!! Timing is important in both drama and comedy. A well-paced story draws the audience in and helps it invest in the characters, while a tale too hastily told or too long drawn out will fail to engage anyone. Surprise - something which interrupts the expected - is a creative use of timing and integral to any good story. If someone is reading a novel and everything unfolds in a predictable manner, they will probably wonder why they bothered reading the book. And so it is in life. Having life be predictable all of the time is not as calming as it sounds. We love surprises, especially good surprises like birthday parties, gifts, marriage proposals, and finding something that we thought was lost. Surprises are an important part of humour. A good joke is funny because it goes to a place you didn't expect it to go. Sim
Post a Comment
Read more

Names of God

The Hebrew word "YHWH" (read from right to left) This past Sunday I gave a talk on the Names of God, the beginning of a series on this topic. This first talk was to be a gentle introduction so I thought it wouldn't take too many hours of preparation. Well, I quickly discovered that the research is almost bottomless; every time I thought I had a somewhat definitive list of names, I found another source which added a few more or gave a different twist on some of the names I had already come across. After several hours I was getting overwhelmed by the sheer amount of data (and that was only looking at the Hebrew Bible). I wondered how I could present this to people in an orderly and accessible fashion and within a reasonable time frame. Not everyone is up for a 3-hour lecture crammed full of detail on a Sunday morning. So I took a break and spent a bit of time meditating on this problem and asking the Spirit for guidance. And then I thought that being overwhelmed by Go
3 comments
Read more

soul refrigerator

I went grocery shopping yesterday and came home with three bags of food. After I unpacked them all, this is what my fridge looked like: really empty. How does that happen? How can I feel so full and ready for any food emergency one moment, and after one quick glance, realise that I have nothing, really? Today is one of those days in my soul as well. I woke up with gratitude and fullness in my heart, ready to take on this day and all the wonderful opportunities that it presented. Then I caught a brief glance of some emptiness in my life and bam - my buoyancy was compromised. For the past few hours I have been treading water, trying to keep my head in a positive space, bobbing in and out of disappointment, and catching myself whining with pathetic indignity at the cement blocks of other people's stupidity that are tangled around my ankles. When I am staring at the empty refrigerator of my soul, these are my thoughts. Where do I go from here? Perhaps I should slam that refrigerator
1 comment
Read more