I had posted this a few days ago, but some response I received to it made me think it would be badly misunderstood. If you are looking at this as an autobiographical piece, you are mistaken. That being said, I think it is to a point autobiographical for many of us. We are pressed into the world's mold often times without at first realizing it...that is what makes a proper worldview so important. Again, these are just some thoughts I had, don't look at it as my life's story or my current spiritual state, because it isn't.
I am the vinyl. Pressed in a mold and placed on a turntable that spins at dizzying speeds with endless monotony and frightening regularity. The needle finds the groove; the speaker crackles with a dusty uncertainty and then spews maxims, dogmas and endless tenants and absolutes without warmth or conviction. The nostalgic “warmth” of sound is an art gleaned from hours of sermons and being that ear to conversations, that shadow man that was neither part nor parcel to the discussion…parroting, nothing but parroting. When will Love marry my discourse?
This is the external. Inside it feels as if another mold has crushed me into a peculiar conformity—a strange implosion of worldview, ethics and purpose. It constricts me, slows thought; reasoning disappears and before the dust settles, a new figure haunts my shelf.
I have been encoded with billions of sound bytes, video files and MP3 tracks. As if the whole world were a voice and I the indiscriminate Ear that bends low and strains for the beautiful, the grotesque, the lie, the bawdy, the banal, the cryptic and vacuous statements of the upper echelons of style and culture, and pandered to the esoteric philosophies that gild my image but further confuse my mind. I am the dictator, the oppressed, the democracy and the corruption. I have the Bible as my constitution while cutting its entries and pasting in my own like some hallowed scrapbook of personal freedom. I have lain with the Golden Mistress in secret then cursed the wealthy for walking through sunlight with Her, arm in arm. I am that sad paradox. I am man—clothed in religion.
Curse lengthy disclaimers. I just re-read it and it is largely autobiographical, but an interspersed, eclectic blend of past and present realities.
ReplyDeleteVery good... and something to think about. Even more important than debating, analyzing, or groping to find the truth, is knowing the Truth, and trusting HIm even when it seems an answer can't be found.
ReplyDeleteIncites thought. I will have to discuss it with you later. I'm awful with overarching metaphors. I usually misinterpret them.
ReplyDeleteAs for Ms. Hunt, you present a valid point, but one that is often over emphasized. It is right that all Truth finds it origin in God, and that Christ is Truth personified. However, people often use that as an excuse to be spiritually lazy and not put effort or study into their religion. I think of Ruth Bell Graham, a woman who would be especially careful to abhor works as a means of salvation. She studied her Scripture every morning with around two dozen Bible versions, commentaries, and Greek & Hebrew Scriptures. She understood that much of the Truth of Christ CAN be known through diligence married with our status in Christ.
I especially agreed with the last statement: "clothed in religion". We get caught up in religion rather than a relationship with Christ. There is a huge difference!
ReplyDeleteTravis, you also present a valid point. Sometimes people do get stuck in the rut of thinking they learned it all in Sunday School... I definitely think that Christians have no place to be lazy when it comes to their study of the Bible and their searching for the truth. We will never reach a point when there isn't more to learn! This is something that I need to work on in my life, thank you for reminding me of that!
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