Wednesday, August 31, 2011

An Oliver Twist Tale


The night is done
And daylight streams into the room
Our hopes, our desires, our emotions
Are stirred, with purpose, as the dawn breaks through

My heart beats like the drums at warfare
A rhythmic pattern that spoke louder than words
Commanding the troops this way and that way
Allowing no retreats or surrender

Words are always useless when it comes to the issues of the heart
No matter how nicely coated and eloquently delivered

I have tried and I keep trying
To let you know how I feel
But I understand now more than before
How it only makes sense when you feel the same

Some things can't be rushed
Like marching in time to the brigade band
And a few more things we can't do without
Like the air we breathe to keep alive

I know you don't believe in fairy tales
Else I would want to be your knight in shining armour
But i want to be 'Oliver twist'
And ask for more of you

to the love of my life...
Adepeju Olaitan

Sunday, August 28, 2011

A Dripping Mouth

Yet he speaks a deluge of words
Fumbling at times, yet not pausing
Racing, so it seems
To the beginning of another from there

And yet the others wonder
The truth, even the semblance of it
For in the multitude of words
Untruth is wont to abound

But yet he propounds;
Theory heaped on theory
Of fallacious and incomprehensible tales
Leaving the others' ears filled with jargons

And yet they pretend; feigning interest
Till the ears become achey
And with stylish gymnastic display they leave
Now he is left alone, doing dialogue by himself

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

I’m Not Christ

There we were standing in a small Mexican airport while we waited for our bags to come out. I overheard a conversation between an English woman trying to speak to an airport official about her lost bag. Having taken several years of Spanish, I went over and offered assistance to the woman looking for her bag. While we loaded our own bags and headed to the hotel I realised something astonishing…. Even though I understand Spanish, can speak it, and perhaps help someone with it, it doesn't make me Hispanic.

Why would a well-educated individual think that just because they know a language makes them that specific nationality? Yet over and over again I see people insist that because you speak Italian you are actually Italian. As a matter of fact, YOU do it all the time!! No need to look around, I'm talking about you.

A preacher stands on the pulpit every Sunday, opens their Bible and offers you translation. Each Sunday you go, you feel yourself getting better and better, you feel stronger and wiser, and then it hits….. You turn on the TV and there is your pastor, being arrested on some type of drug charge and the words fall out of your mouth, "And to think, he was a preacher…"; You think that just because he could translate the Word, and help you solve a problem you were having, he IS the Word. Is this not anymore foolish than believing the ability to communicate in Spanish, makes me Hispanic? Why is it that we have the habit of placing the messenger on the pedestal, not the message?

No one has a free pass to go out and do whatever they want without facing consequences, but just because God called me to help you doesn't mean I don't have my own struggles…. my own issues… There is no level of Christianity where your relationship with Christ is no longer a work in progress. There is always more of Him to fill you and more of that for you to with share others. But just because I speak Christianity doesn't make me Christ. The time must come when we separate the vessel from the anointing and allow people the ability to live their lives and have their own struggles.

It is inevitable that the moment anyone who is well known hits an obstacle in life, that we look back on their past and point out any and every thing that contradicts their stumble. If we were limited to only speaking on things we have mastered there would be a deafening silence…. I can share with you what I have learned, what I have observed, and what I have been taught but I have mastered nothing. I cannot be convinced that anyone has mastered anything. You may have figured out how to communicate with YOUR child at this stage in their life, but as sure as the day turns to evening, that child will grow and you will have to learn how to communicate with your adult child.

I know that many people have seen my beautiful scars and in the moments I start to feel shame I remember that just because you've seen mine, doesn't make yours disappear. I may not ever see your wounds but, I know that if you have air in your lungs and a pulse in your wrist they exist. I don't want to be your saviour, don't want to sell myself as your Christ, I just want to share with you something that may help make your journey a little easier.

The fact that I was able to help one woman, find her bag, in a foreign country, thousands of miles away from her home, doesn't insure that my bag would come out and my trip would be problem free. I may not be struggling with a lost bag, a broken home, a drug issue, a sexual addiction, or a sordid past but I do have a struggle, so does our President, so does your neighbour, so does the person who seems to have it all. No one is exempt from struggle; my ability to help you with something doesn't eliminate my own issue.

All I'm saying is if you put me in your glass house, put my life under your microscope, you won't have to look very hard to find something wrong with me. I speak Christianity, but I'm not Christ.

sarah d henson
sarahdhenson.wordpress.com

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All I have to say is 'you bet'.