Wild wood wilderness;
So tempted by the bitterness;
Smoke and drink washed emptiness
Come, oh come sweet tenderness
Fill this hole over.
So confused, alone, and cloistered.
In one hand the world, my oyster,
A pilgrim’s shell proves only a coaster
Flat and stained upon the table bolstered.
Heaven cover over.
The cold stone of this tower in rage
A smoke stack over Pittsburgh, not a cage
Fuelled by doctrine’s page by page
Rising towards the sky from age to age
Pillar of fire stands over.
Burning into the wee hours of the night
Refining, reshaping, re-pressing it’s Light
Only uncertainty in sight
Of what’s been certain through the might
Brokenness ain’t over,
Up from underneath the walls close in
From above the air is trim
This bed and your itching skin
The wall beside me paper-thin
When will this be over?
Staring straight into the deep,
One more promise that won’t keep
There is no sleep, nothing to eat
A nobler man there once did seat,
Help me move over.
Another lie for feelings sake
Against that Wall that will not break
I can’t comprehend how you forsake
The Cup in my hands can’t stop the shake
My cup runneth over.
In this world I long to flee
I fall and Fall in misery
Down, down, down to the pit for me
So much snow for eyes to see
Hell has frozen over.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Blog and Explanation
No Man is an Island… this poem has spoken to me greatly over the past months. As I near the end of seminary, I find I am beginning something completely new, completely terrifying, completely… I don’t even know what! Of all the things I have learned in three years of seminary, the most fascinating and bizarre object of curiosity to me is the human condition and its relation before God.
While training my mind, heart, and soul for the priesthood I have encountered a great many strange people in the same process. The thing about it is (to me anyway) that we are all in the same process and hopefully that means that we are all striving, seeking, laying our lives daily before the Almighty and trying to figure out what we are supposed to be doing with our lives as sinners called to live a life above reproach. The best conclusion I can come up with is that we seem to be called to a life of utter failure sprinkled with moments of glory. Recently it occurs to me that those glimpses of glory which get us from one rough patch to the next is an absolute dependence upon God and the salvation we have in Christ Jesus. In this we are not alone, we have never been abandoned, and we will always have someone standing with us.
If mankind is given grace enough, the gift of friends will be granted. There will be times when we will need to depend on those friends to show us Christ; for us to be seen through another’s eyes outside of ourselves and even possibly through the creator’s eyes himself. In my understanding of friendship it is always a two way street and we therefore hold each other together. Some of these friends are only for an appointed time, some are forever, some will hurt us for any inexplicable reason, and others will love of beyond measure. The point I am trying to make here is that the human condition is the most unstable of all God’s creation because we are susceptible to sin. And yet we are all placed on this earth for such times as we have been given. Even the most reclusive of persons cannot admit to a yearning for something more. Our friends and our enemies; our love, hate, and indifference for one another – we are a part of mankind. Under Christendom we belong to the Father and are unified, justified, and brought into the Light. How we act and react toward one another is the catalyst for which the Holy Spirit can draw us together, or how the demons can tear us apart – individually and collectively. And through that Spirit John Donne informs us that we are not in fact islands entire of ourselves we are one body working and functioning together. At times working together for good, and at times working against one another for schism. But never send for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee. And this is the beginning…
While training my mind, heart, and soul for the priesthood I have encountered a great many strange people in the same process. The thing about it is (to me anyway) that we are all in the same process and hopefully that means that we are all striving, seeking, laying our lives daily before the Almighty and trying to figure out what we are supposed to be doing with our lives as sinners called to live a life above reproach. The best conclusion I can come up with is that we seem to be called to a life of utter failure sprinkled with moments of glory. Recently it occurs to me that those glimpses of glory which get us from one rough patch to the next is an absolute dependence upon God and the salvation we have in Christ Jesus. In this we are not alone, we have never been abandoned, and we will always have someone standing with us.
If mankind is given grace enough, the gift of friends will be granted. There will be times when we will need to depend on those friends to show us Christ; for us to be seen through another’s eyes outside of ourselves and even possibly through the creator’s eyes himself. In my understanding of friendship it is always a two way street and we therefore hold each other together. Some of these friends are only for an appointed time, some are forever, some will hurt us for any inexplicable reason, and others will love of beyond measure. The point I am trying to make here is that the human condition is the most unstable of all God’s creation because we are susceptible to sin. And yet we are all placed on this earth for such times as we have been given. Even the most reclusive of persons cannot admit to a yearning for something more. Our friends and our enemies; our love, hate, and indifference for one another – we are a part of mankind. Under Christendom we belong to the Father and are unified, justified, and brought into the Light. How we act and react toward one another is the catalyst for which the Holy Spirit can draw us together, or how the demons can tear us apart – individually and collectively. And through that Spirit John Donne informs us that we are not in fact islands entire of ourselves we are one body working and functioning together. At times working together for good, and at times working against one another for schism. But never send for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee. And this is the beginning…
No Man is an Island
No man is an island, entire of itself
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main
if a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were
any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls
it tolls for thee.
- John Donne
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main
if a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were
any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls
it tolls for thee.
- John Donne
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