I am a devoted follower of Jesus and yet I find this so powerful. Demystifying our definitions of God and Christianity. Or churchianity as it's sometimes called. I pray the one they call Jehovah will reveal himself I'm ways we can perceive and appreciate. 🙏🏽
As a religion scholar at university who has been studying religion and philosophy and art and mythology and Brian science and psychology for my whole life, it seems to me you finally believe in God. The words holy and sacred and gods and spirit etc. — all traveled in the territories you are describing here. But our culture has lost an entire category about wonder and fairy dust and mystery in any real ways. And so belief and faith became yet another stop on certainty. Another argument and idea about ourselves. Rather than being where our ideas fell apart in awe at what is in spite of us and our wants.
The work seems to be to put that understanding to rest and to hover over these other embers of our culture that most institutions and structures have encouraged us to walk away from and to notice if something catches fire under our watch.
I think there are two ways to examine this piece of writing. You can take the text literally as an attack on faith, or if you're a non-believer, justify the position of your faith. The alternative might be that this is written as a character piece where the author is just ruminating and can't seem to come to terms with where on the continuum of belief they land. Perhaps it is simply a thought experiment, meant to simply ask more questions that it is meant to answer, because that is the most human thing to do. And on the random occasion that a question achieves resolution, a system of faith and belief can take root. Until such a time we live in questionland.
This is more like the God I believe in too. Not far off in a distant heaven but within us all waiting to be revealed. A God of mystery, of hope but also of challenge. Visible wherever people are kind and compassionate and loving towards each other.
I really enjoyed this, thank you Jeff. It feels like a stripping away of all the layers that have been put onto the mystery and beauty and the wildness - the romance - many encounter growing up; removing the dogma that attempts to tame all that and make it all into rote religious statements - and just getting back to the wonder. I would argue that it very much feels like growing up, and in fact growing up often means becoming like a child again in these things. The last line is telling :). Appreciated this. I really think you should move into writing fiction.
Thoughts and musings I share as well. I was raised Independent Fundamental Baptist, then Southern Baptist. I've spent 15 years unraveling from that belief system. Now... I have more questions than answers yet more clear than I ever was in those close minded institutions.
Another a devoted Jesus follower who resonates so much with this poem. Religion is about making rules and putting God into boxes we can make sense of. My relationship with God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit defies these attempts to quantify and control a God who cannot be conceived and understood by my human brain, much less contained. I see this poem as an invitation to awe and wonder, which is where I believe true faith begins.
and wonder why our wonder has been replaced with reason,
scrubbed like the decks on a ship
that will never reach a new world."
Why have we buried what lies beneath under reason and logic? A travesty. Those will never bring us the fulfillment we seek... I, too, want to go back to believing in fairy dust and tiny specks of light.
Beautiful Jeff! Living the questions and becoming one day the answer. We all return to those same stories. Is it the end or is it the beginning all over again? Who was the narrator? Bless you.
Jeff,
This is thick as a real ice cream chocolate milkshake.
Wow.! I especially love this stanza:
Sometimes, I still
hear whispers in the dark
and wonder why our wonder has been replaced with reason,
scrubbed like the decks on a ship
that will never reach a new world..
April is poetry month.
Cheers,
Shawn.
I am a devoted follower of Jesus and yet I find this so powerful. Demystifying our definitions of God and Christianity. Or churchianity as it's sometimes called. I pray the one they call Jehovah will reveal himself I'm ways we can perceive and appreciate. 🙏🏽
As a religion scholar at university who has been studying religion and philosophy and art and mythology and Brian science and psychology for my whole life, it seems to me you finally believe in God. The words holy and sacred and gods and spirit etc. — all traveled in the territories you are describing here. But our culture has lost an entire category about wonder and fairy dust and mystery in any real ways. And so belief and faith became yet another stop on certainty. Another argument and idea about ourselves. Rather than being where our ideas fell apart in awe at what is in spite of us and our wants.
The work seems to be to put that understanding to rest and to hover over these other embers of our culture that most institutions and structures have encouraged us to walk away from and to notice if something catches fire under our watch.
I think there are two ways to examine this piece of writing. You can take the text literally as an attack on faith, or if you're a non-believer, justify the position of your faith. The alternative might be that this is written as a character piece where the author is just ruminating and can't seem to come to terms with where on the continuum of belief they land. Perhaps it is simply a thought experiment, meant to simply ask more questions that it is meant to answer, because that is the most human thing to do. And on the random occasion that a question achieves resolution, a system of faith and belief can take root. Until such a time we live in questionland.
This is more like the God I believe in too. Not far off in a distant heaven but within us all waiting to be revealed. A God of mystery, of hope but also of challenge. Visible wherever people are kind and compassionate and loving towards each other.
I really enjoyed this, thank you Jeff. It feels like a stripping away of all the layers that have been put onto the mystery and beauty and the wildness - the romance - many encounter growing up; removing the dogma that attempts to tame all that and make it all into rote religious statements - and just getting back to the wonder. I would argue that it very much feels like growing up, and in fact growing up often means becoming like a child again in these things. The last line is telling :). Appreciated this. I really think you should move into writing fiction.
Absolutely beautiful, relatable, thought-provoking and with just enough fairy dust to make it magical.
That’s pretty good there, Jeff! I see what you did.☀️🌤️👏🏽☺️🩷
Thoughts and musings I share as well. I was raised Independent Fundamental Baptist, then Southern Baptist. I've spent 15 years unraveling from that belief system. Now... I have more questions than answers yet more clear than I ever was in those close minded institutions.
Thanks for sharing this. It moved me.
Another a devoted Jesus follower who resonates so much with this poem. Religion is about making rules and putting God into boxes we can make sense of. My relationship with God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit defies these attempts to quantify and control a God who cannot be conceived and understood by my human brain, much less contained. I see this poem as an invitation to awe and wonder, which is where I believe true faith begins.
Nice. I get it. #Wrestling
This.
"Sometimes, I still
hear whispers in the dark
and wonder why our wonder has been replaced with reason,
scrubbed like the decks on a ship
that will never reach a new world."
Why have we buried what lies beneath under reason and logic? A travesty. Those will never bring us the fulfillment we seek... I, too, want to go back to believing in fairy dust and tiny specks of light.
Beautiful Jeff! Living the questions and becoming one day the answer. We all return to those same stories. Is it the end or is it the beginning all over again? Who was the narrator? Bless you.
"Sometimes, I still
hear whispers in the dark
and wonder why our wonder has been replaced with reason,
scrubbed like the decks on a ship
that will never reach a new world."
Damn. Melting my little atheist heart over here. I also believe in specks of light and fairy dust. Beautiful writing, Jeff.
Jeff, loved this piece and the words you've put to your experience.
I've been coming back each day to read the comments. The range of humanity and beliefs and reactions is fascinating.