What Happens?

What happens when light is shone on the darkness?
What happens to the shadows when they are revealed?
What of the things done in darkness?
What of the power of offense?

What happens when sin is revealed?
Does it change or do we?
And which is redemption?
Are the acts redeemed?
Or the actors?

I've often wondered what to make of the notion that sin thrives in darkness, and when brought to the light it loses its power and dies. How does this work? In part, I agree with so many moral watchdogs that the debauchery portrayed on film and television or the internet glorifies it, but I then wonder if that portrayal has the ability to convict as well.

Or, does it only remove the power of conviction from it? Do we become so accustomed to seeing brutal violence that we think it an appropriate way to settle a dispute? Do we become so used to seeing people engaged in illicit sex acts that we are moved to behave in the same manner without consideration of the consequences?

Part of this question arises from witnessing the reaction of many to the internet's ability to share information on a scale never imagined before: We now know what goes on in the darkened corners of society and the world. And we are appalled (some of us, anyway). But does this revelation redeem, or condemn?

While I may seem to be asking this rhetorically, I am actually not. Is the knowledge of sin that which condemns or redeems? "For by the law came the knowledge of sin." "...then you will be like God, knowing the difference between good and evil." Innocence, in a sense, can be confused with ignorance. Is the law sin? The first passage comes from Romans 3:20, and the second comes from Genesis 3:5. Sin originated from the desire to be like God, and in that sense to be like God was to know what was good and what was evil. If we follow this logic, then we come to another question: Is an act evil before we know it is?

Now, before we get too far down this path, Romans addresses this earlier than chapter 3, when it states that inherent to all humanity is the knowledge of sin. But this is because of sin. Sin begets more sin. So without the knowledge of sin, is there sin? Before we knew of a practice and disapproved of it, was it still evil? Or, if we approve of a practice, does it then become good?

There are, of course, ways of determining the sinfulness of an action: does it create in the actor love, or hate? Does it isolate, or include? Does it bring the person to God, or close them off from God? Does it resonate consonantly with the bible or dissonantly? But we are unable to determine the relation of the act to these tests unless we observe and understand the acts and actors. And this should lead us to humility and inquiry before conclusions are made that carry such dramatic weight as the label of "sin."

Prayers

Life has been, well, busy. And of course the first thing that takes the hit is this little blog here. But today I had to write out five rhyming prayers for a class, and I liked most of them so much that I have decided to post them here. Some are funny, some are sad. Others my seem absurd but I  still like them, and I hope you do too!

Prayer of Thanks for Food:

By Your mercies we are fed

Our meat was led by pastures green

And grass to milk for them was weaned

From soil grew the tender sprouts

Whose roots abhor the leaning droughts

Their leafy tongues licked up the rain

While sunshine then drew forth the grain

And man who from the dust You formed

Worked her way to dusk from morn

From field to truck to grocer’s shelves

As we unwitting helped ourselves

Thank you for our daily bread.

Prayer for Travel: (Lament and Protection)

Lament:

A single sorrow knows the road

Where feet and faith and tires ‘trode

A second father knows no son

And spirits meet us, everyone

Protection:

So many terrors haunt these roads

So many kick against the goads

Protect us from the weaving one

Whose ringing phone the lane’s undone

Protect us from the fate we share

With those whose tires have worn bare

Protect us from the screeching stop

When some Ferrari lost her top

Protect our hearts from rage so fierce

When some soul’s middle finger rears

Protect our rears from unawareness

When tarmac burns like fiery furnace

And may You soon reveal new means

Of getting from point A to B.

Prayer While Making Coffee:

Thank you for this bean so brown

And for the energy it brings

May its affect not be frown

For at its savor my heart sings

Thank you for the water clear

And for current to make it hot

May we be mindful of its sear

And abuse the fluid not

Thank you for the charming smell

And mugs to hold the brew

May we remember those who sell

And those whose labors grew.

Prayer While in the Shower:

So far above the dirt You formed

I wash free from all its norms

And naked from the womb I came

Now beneath this flood the same

I’ve no more disguise from You

Than if a camera caught me nude

Forgive my wayward, wandering heart

Whose quiet murmurs drift apart

From Yours and all your beckoning

And friends who’ve had their reckoning

Forgive the way I hide my eyes

And humbly hide behind my pride

Remember me, so far removed

From all that I’ve begun to do

Remind my heart whose worth it finds

In You alone and Your design

For all that I intend to do

May it first begin with You

"Still Darkness Waits"

An Old Poem:

Like first fruits born
Of a barren womb
Empty I came
So I was consumed
The dust drank up
The blood which called
For the harvest of men
For long since the fall

Still dreams persist
Long past grey dawn
Through a chorus of souls
Still I stumble on
Beneath watchful eyes
So deep and so worn
Like the end of the age
That sad, tired morn

By cross shaped trees
And blossoming tombs
I peer through the dust
Of my own upper room
And to my ears
A whispered fate
Your voice remains:
"Still darkness waits"