Been doing a lot of theological thinking recently. Herer is something Ive come up with....

ABSOLUTES

My heart wants to write checks
That my brain knows it can’t cash.
Absolutes? Of course there are absolutes
But everyone sees their absolutes
In the light of the reality they deem best
And marshalls whatever data they can find
To prove themselves right. No exceptions.
Everyone and everything
Touched by the hand of man does this,
Folds their arms and says
“There, I told you so….’’
And some may be right,
And some may be wrong;
Some win
And some lose.

Data, data everywhere
Writings, proof texts ancient and new,
This one says so,
The other says not so,
And maybe the truth is there;
Maybe it’s everywhere.
What I know
Is it’s a heck of a lot more evanescent
Than we who love clarity
Would like to believe.
Truth often exists between the lines
While we concentrate
On the big words
We can easily see.

One came
Who claimed to be truth
And in the eyes of this poor observer
He WAS truth,
The only absolute this world ever knew
Or knows now.
What did HE say?
He claimed to be love.
If he is truth, he also is love
Truth and love: truth IS love???
Far beyond any poor man’s ability
To parse, amass or quantify
Far beyond anyone’s poor ability
To experience or understand.
It exists, and suffuses me,
And calls on me to pass it on
Unhindered by anyone’s efforts
But His to say “not so.”

There is not much in this world
Worth fighting over.
But I will struggle to my death
To experience His truth and His love,
To FIND His truth and His love
To REJOICE in His truth and His love
Unencumbered by anyone else’s definitions
Of what truth and love might be.
If people want to call me insane in this,
I gladly accept the label.

-Chip Bergeron
April 31, 2013