Poetic License

I had this thought sometime ago and only recently has it started to show signs of finishing its fermentation process. Like most good thoughts, it struck me out of the blue, without any kind of warning. I was at dinner with some friends after church and I was thinking about how so many preachers either quote Psalms, use principles from the Psalms, recite the Psalms, use the Psalms as a context for a main point or simply refer to the Psalms. And I had this thought, "What does it say about the character of a God that would place so much authority on poetry?" Now, already that is a pretty cool thought as it gets you to think.

Last sunday of last month I decided to attend church with a friend of mine that used to go to Hillsong (disclaimer, I am NOT, repeat NOT thinking of leaving my home church. I simply wanted to see christianity from a different perspective and I have found that doing things like that actually feeds me quite a bit) and go to a little Anglican church somewhere out in Glenmoore. It turned out to be a very good choice. One of the scriptures they were studying was 1Corinthians1:27, God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. And it occurred to me that poetry is very much one of those weak things that can shame the strong.

I have never won an arguement with poetry. Poetry does not have to be logical, sensible or practical. It simply needs to be poetry. When I say poetry, I do not simply mean lines of writing that happen to rhyme. I mean things that stir the heart with their grandeur, touch the senses with their sensuality, and kick the head for doubting them. Those kind of things. These kind of things are weak, sometimes extremely weak, but they have their own strength which can completely confound the things with which we would win an arguement. For example, I have never actually seen God, I have never heard His physical voice, and more than likely through scientific enquiry would not be able to prove whether or not that He exists. But I can say now, that the best things I have ever known, the best thoughts I have ever had, the most uplifting experiences I have ever gone through were all because of Him.

But I don't think this ends here. Poetry, real poetry engages every part of us and forces it to a reaction. It makes us think, feel and either laugh or cry (sometimes both), it cannot help but to leave us different to how it found us. It leaves a mark upon us that no mere argument could ever remove. I will admit, I cannot tell you a scientific and proven equation as to why christianity works. The only way to see that it works, is to live it.

Josh