Two Things...

When considering the "problem" of evil, I rarely hear people discuss the evil in their own hearts. When people ask how God could allow this and that atrocity, I rarely hear anyone ask how God could forgive a man. It is interesting that the thrust of the problem of evil is not mainly a strong philosophical argument but rather a deep emotional unreasoned gut reaction. No one who champions the "problem" wants to deal with their own evil or God's forgiveness. I am, of course, open to correction if someone knows of something I have missed. Consistency is an uncomfortable thing.

Goodbye Johnny

Goodbye Johnny I never knew you
And I guess I never will
Goodbye Johnny I never met you
And my heart has grown quite still
Death comes easy, always, and often
Living is hard, uncertain, and rare
Goodbye Johnny the world keeps spinning
And we don't pretend to know it's fair.

"Having never known..."

"Having never known the man I really couldn't say.
And all the wishing, poorer still
Never the less I feel it impinging upon my sensibilities
And am all the more distressed for that which I cannot affect.

If it were another way
And I could perform some great feat-
but alas, such is not available to me,
And it is only this way here.

Knowing the evil in my heart
And how great a weakness lives within me
I am at a loss as to how to proceed,
The mercies of God are all that remain for me."

And who hasn't felt a kindred pang for such sentiment as this?

A Certain Thing.

Dying is the gift she would not have
And though it was the best of gifts
And every thing she wanted was laid therein
She could not bear to receive it then.

Living was the hardest thing
And though she did not want it at all
And though she wanted nothing less
She could not bear the experience then.

Believing was the simple part
In a certain way at least
It all made so much sense to her
And alternatives were poor at best then.

Trusting was another thing
And was what she could not begin
To do herself within herself
To conquer all that shame and sin.

But then there was this certain thing
This thing she could not ignore
And a thing it was so unreal to her
But she so very much just wanted more.