It has been said, no one ever steps in the same river twice, as the water moves on and on. You, also, touch these flowing moments of a river at different points of your life as you grow, are destroyed, and change. Words, like water down the banks, also trickle over us throughout our lifetime. Not that words are physically moving, but the words flow from my heart on my tongue to the page, into your mind. You will experience words at different points in your life along your journey of understanding. Never is a word still or silent, because then it does not do what a word does. Moving you. Moving me.
The words of poetry, then, not only tell you about the world, but they strive to make you feel a truth about our existence together. A verse that makes one feel is a way we can understand something about each other. About our lives up to this point. About our hopes and disappointments. About our flowing observations of the rivers around us. About our faith in something greater than ourselves.
Our secret longing is to connect with other-worldly Truths in a creation that stands separated from the gods. Words from above form in our throats below. Threads of syllables in different languages, in different tongues, saying similar things, pointing to the tears and laughter of the ages. Before death, after tragedy, facing pain and sadness, hoping for life, understanding one's meaning and purpose in time, our words down below seek to translate these experiences into a universal vocabulary. Metaphor and wisdom are filled with the words of our poetry, excavating beneath the surface of our everyday. Imagery and sound are possessed by the words of our poetry, describing what creation feels like as it scrapes on the skin, and in the heart.
So, a poetic expression of theology is both beautiful and terrifying. Because our words move, change, flow, and at the same time speak the Unmovable Truth. Subjective and objective. An external song from an Almighty and Everlasting God, churning with a cry of honesty from the inside of an individual, dying soul.
All of this makes for a mess. Our words have no authority over the God of the Ancient Faith, but the discovery of these ancient truths impacts every emotional syllable carried inside. We, then, have two realms of faith to honor. A powerful Truth that is beyond our control, and our personal trust that believes. The Faith is the content of God’s Truth, an outside, objective reality. But our clutching hold-fast faith is a lyrical understanding that has informed us through personal connection, feeling, and sentiment.
Lyrics of Conviction, then, encourage a specific type of reflection. While poetry is a helpful expression of truth, exposing experiences is not writing a doctrine. These are not words to be parsed and translated into tense and voice. These are not arguments to be scrutinized under the lens of formal logic. Rather a poem convinces by how a word feels on your tongue, in your mouth, around your throat, in your ears, touching your memories. A poetic expression of faith is open to interpretation, inviting all who hear to bathe in the emotion. These lyrics are fallible because they are created in the depths of a black and selfish-centered soul. Whereas the source of this faith is not. The Word of God, the basis for this poetry, has been built up from the shining and stable foundations of the world. These are different fountains of truth, but entirely connected.
In the following weeks, I will share some of my own Lyrics of Conviction. Perhaps they reflect and clarify The Faith through my faith. Perhaps not. Also, we may misunderstand each other, probably. As it is with any intimate conversation, I have spoken my insides, but they have not always checked themselves against the brick-and-mortar truth. I look forward to and desire your response to these poems.
How should one approach these lyrics? Speak them out loud. Hear the words and feel the sensations as they enter your ears. Taste the sunshine and drink in the words that are on the page. Are they the typical words of faith you have been taught? Are they quotes from the mouth of God? No. These are little pieces of my soul, as close as I can make my words say it.
And then what? Read the Word of God. All of these poetic musings reflect the Words that He first gave to us. Meditate on the Truth that has made any of our words mean anything. Along with my own lyrics, I will include readings from Scripture that support, challenge, and give context to the poem.
So, yield your mind to freedom. Let the words seep and wash and tickle and rush over. This poetry is for the moment of our age. And just maybe, you will respond with your own lyrics of conviction. The Ancient Faith will absolutely answer our offensive wanderings. But sometimes, the cracked words from a struggling sinner can enlighten our path together.
“No one steps in the same river twice. For it’s not the same river and he's not the same man.” -Heraclitus
I like how these thoughts are tied to Moses being unsure what to say, the Word being there in the beginning, and God speaking to us by His Son. It also makes me think of Ezekiel chapter 3 when he is told to eat the scroll.
To be in God's Word so that the things that come back out of us are shaped by it, or that in our hour of need we can say God's Word to Him or to a brother or sister, is incredible.
Concerning poetry and God being our Light, I often think of the Light breaking into and exposing our darkness. There was a poem on The Jagged Word that painted the picture so clearly that it comes up often in our morning devotions. Recalling that piece or reading another are opportunities to bring another of our senses into our study.