Faith Unreconciled

Religion desires neat shelves of thought

Each loose end secured with a tidy knot.

All contradictions explained away;

“There are no contradictions,” they say.

 

 

 

 

Oh, the desire I do not disdain,

To delve and plumb, and then explain,

To theorize and explore,

To knock at heaven’s door.

 

 

 

 

But God forbid that we divide

That which we can circumscribe

From the thorny problems of the Word

Where the seams of our faith are blurred.

 

 

 

 

Secure not the bearings that would clink

And ping against one another in the machinery

For therein lies the music and the theme

And without the contradictions, Christ is but a dream.

 

 

 

 

Teach me a faith to abide

That never can be reconciled

A faith that lusts for contradiction

And clings to angst opposed to fiction.

 

 

 

 

Invention and inventory have no value to me;

Unraveled, unreconciled faith I seek.

Let doubt be my meat and drink,

And questions be the basis for belief.

 

 

 

 

 

Jeannie Babb

May 22, 2006

Comments

[Naman Crowe]

And answered questions extend my reach.