Thanks for the comments, Jim. I came up with this poem after thinking about how other people view Christians, especially (in my case), people who knew us before we became Christians. They tend on the whole I think to view conversion with a slightly melancholy tinge. I mean, I imagine them thinking things like, "he's using religion as a crutch" or "he's turning to God because he can't deal with problems on his own" - whereas what I would want them to think is, "he's become a Christian because God's just fantastic!". But how to express this as a poem?
Then I came across the Apollinaire's "Come to the Edge", and I thought, what if I inverted that concept, what if the poem wasn't about people being afraid to "make the leap" (a leap of faith?), but doing it joyfully and willingly, and yet not quite being understood by those around them.
So I suppose it's a poem about a misunderstanding, or a lack of communication, between believer and non-believer. Sometimes I think non-Christians look at us and think, "well, yeah, Christianity seems to be working for him, but no-one's really explained how it might work for me." And that's where your story about the cliff and the meadow comes in. There's two different perspectives at work, and how do we go about bringing those perspectives back together again?
BunnyGirl was right! You are gifted! Do you allow people to reproduce any of your work on other personal sites (not to make money and of course, giving you full citation)?
I have nominated you for the Thinking Blogger award - see my latest posting
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Thinking Blogger Award!
Thanks for the comments, Jim. I came up with this poem after thinking about how other people view Christians, especially (in my case), people who knew us before we became Christians. They tend on the whole I think to view conversion with a slightly melancholy tinge. I mean, I imagine them thinking things like, "he's using religion as a crutch" or "he's turning to God because he can't deal with problems on his own" - whereas what I would want them to think is, "he's become a Christian because God's just fantastic!". But how to express this as a poem?
ReplyDeleteThen I came across the Apollinaire's "Come to the Edge", and I thought, what if I inverted that concept, what if the poem wasn't about people being afraid to "make the leap" (a leap of faith?), but doing it joyfully and willingly, and yet not quite being understood by those around them.
So I suppose it's a poem about a misunderstanding, or a lack of communication, between believer and non-believer. Sometimes I think non-Christians look at us and think, "well, yeah, Christianity seems to be working for him, but no-one's really explained how it might work for me." And that's where your story about the cliff and the meadow comes in. There's two different perspectives at work, and how do we go about bringing those perspectives back together again?
BunnyGirl was right! You are gifted! Do you allow people to reproduce any of your work on other personal sites (not to make money and of course, giving you full citation)?
ReplyDeletefeel free, Jon.
ReplyDelete