When I Say "I Am A Christian"...

When I say..."I am a Christian"
I'm not shouting "I am saved"
I'm whispering "I get lost!"
"That is why I chose this way."

When I say..."I am a Christian"
I don't speak of this with pride.
I'm confessing that I stumble
and need someone to be my guide.

When I say..."I am a Christian"
I'm not trying to be strong.
I'm professing that I'm weak
and pray for strength to carry on.

When I say..."I am a Christian"
I'm not bragging of success.
I'm admitting I have failed
and cannot ever pay the debt.

When I say..."I am a Christian"
I'm not claiming to be perfect,
my flaws are too visible
but God believes I'm worth it.

When I say..."I am a Christian"
I still feel the sting of pain
I have my share of heartaches
which is why I seek His name.

When I say..."I am a Christian"
I do not wish to judge.
I have no authority.
I only know I'm loved.

-Author Carol Wimmer - Copyright 1988

here's one for the so-called Bible Christians...

When I first watched this I could not help but say: "amen!" although deep inside me I know there's a lingering feeling that I myself is guilty of doing such a thing with regards to twisting the teachings of Christ, anyways I hope stings those who are guilty of doing such as I am.

anxiety

...for love is as strong as death...
Song of Songs 8:6

Needless to say no matter what I'll say or do your heart cannot be mine...

Fate seems to have this twisted humor that guts out our greatest hopes and dreams.

Why must this be too early seen unknown and known too late?

Living with the closeness of this reality of pain makes me wish that somehow I would be smitten with the surd of death --I have finally met you.

For me that is enough, for I can never go farther than being the person that I am to you now.

God knows how I want it to be like that but it seems that indeed the heart is deceitful in the midst of a flesh that's too weak to know boundaries in its desire for companionship, for the sweet kiss and empathic embrace of a fellow human being with whom in a heartbeat I would unquestioningly give my life to.

I am lonely. I am sad. I feel as though like I am dead.

And I just might as well be dead for all I care. You are there and I can't have you --or better yet I cannot give my life to you as I would hope you'd want me to.

I love you too bad I’ll never be able to say this to your face…

Helpless

I cannot help but
Hate myself now
You are there
And God knows
How much I would
Like to hold your hand
And feel your skin
Against mine
I am dying inside
I long for your embrace
I would die for your kiss
In this desire for love
That seeks to manifest itself
In a language of touching
And wanting to be touched
I reach out my hand to nothing
But the empty realization
That my heart’s deepest desire
Cannot be…

Speak with authority

A reflection on John F. Burg's Speak With Authority which was originally published as the foreword to volume 105 (2008) of the Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly

We all have at one point in our lives struggled with the nature power.

In fact Aristotle’s line from The Politics which says that man is by nature a political animal is but an understatement of what we are, when it comes to our exercise of interaction among people as individuals that are a part of a community.

It is in these relationships that we ask and struggle about who it is that has to exercise the freedom to tell us what to do. Or who has a say on how we are to go about with certain decisions that will more or less have impact on another person life. It is in these carrying out of choices that one begins to ask about: mandate, qualifications, character and all those many other things that we ask in order to make sure that the one who is in power or the one who wishes to assert his or her authority over us has the right to do so.

Breaking the status quo of complacency

“…let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!” – Amos 5:22

Anaesthetized

When I was younger I used to be scared out of my wits whenever I heard a ‘fire and brimstone’ sermon preached at our local church’s pulpit. God knows how much I tremble at the very graphic descriptions of the ‘end times’ and the Day of the Lord.

But nowadays, I don’t seem to feel anything.