Finding My Focus
For some reason I am just stuck! I have the passion, but not the focus to bring it home (or on paper). There are several subjects in which I wish to write some poetry, but I am having a heck of a time getting it out. I am having a heck of a time getting my thoughts straight. Part of it, I’m sure, is that my eight year old is home on holiday break, and that requires much of my attention. But there is more to it than that, I think. The good news is that I see my shrink this coming Monday, and that should help me get my thoughts straight; get my focus back. I also need to be reading on the topics in which I wish to write; also very important.
I think part of the problem is that I tend to want to keep some of my poetry secular, and I’m not a secular person. Most of what I am, and who I am is a person of God. I have this conflict, even with this blog in not wanting to be preachy or mega-religious (big turn off), so I hold back in what I am trying to say. But I have to break through and just be who I am; it is crucial to my creative edge.
You see, the topic I desire to write about is the hypocrisy of the religious right, and the failings of the liberal left, all in a Christian POV. Does that sound too complicated. I am infuriated with men and women who claim to be Christians advocating hate and violence. It’s an oxymoron. A Christian who supports war, as I read the bible, is not in touch with the Jesus I know. I tire of fellows who justify war by misusing scripture, and I feel extremely compelled to write about it. So, that WILL be the target of my next collection of poetry. I title it “Jesus and an M16”. I think that the title speaks for itself.
My next entry will be the ‘I hate television’ poem.
posted by P. Allan Frederick | 5:16 AM
2 Comments:
"And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows" (Matthew 24:4-8).
There will be wars, whether those who profess Christ participate or not; whether Christians advocate peace or not. How one wages war and how one pursues peace affect how much time passes between wars. But neither can prevent war from happening. And why, I assume, be infuriated with American warmongers alone? Have you no anger at the terrorists?
Sure I do, but I'm not so self-righteous as to assume that I am more deserving of God's grace than they are. The bible is clear in the Sermon on the Mount concerning retaliating and such. This really isn't a topic I would like to visit on this blog, but I will if you must. I think that terrorism is an abomination of mankind, and shames our species in this great creation. Terrorism is murder, flat out, and those men WILL answer for their sins (unless the repent and turn to Christ), and it will be car worse than anything they could inflict on others. They take life in ways of a universal unjustness. They are a boil on the face of mankind. But for His own reasons, God loves those men and women, and set Jesus down to die for their sins, just as he has for mine. The point I'd like to make is that retaliation is just as unjust as the attackes themselves. As sinners, and as humankind persist in their rebellion towards God, we are all deserving of whatever comes our way in the line of suffering. But, if we repent, Jesus suffering takes the place of that. Moreover, when we as Christians suffer, we just draw closer to Jesus because of His suffering. So suffering as a nonChristian deserved, suffering as a Christian privelidged. That should let you know where I am coming from, and why I think that the terrorist are as bad as the war mongering and vise versa. I know that as long as mankind refuses to repent and put God first in their lives, there will always be wars. As James says, "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come form your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not revieve, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." I find that throughout history, the motives of humankind is what brings war about, not just something that has to happen. I own up to the fact that I am human, I am corrupt, and I am deserving of God's justice. I own that by responding to the cross. All of mankind has that same opportunity. War doesn't have to happen, it does because people are selfish and hate God. The right to defend yourself is completely plausible. I have a position on this, but will not express it for it tends to spark gerat anger in people. So I'll leave that topic off this blog. If you really want to see where I come from in most of my stances, go to http://pfredy.blogspot.com and that's where I get really personal. I want to leave this blog open for poetry and discussions on literary efforts. Thanks for understanding. I'm going to copy and paste this over to the other blog.
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