Saturday, August 11, 2012

The Divine in Our Time


What people call "atheists" may simply be rejecting
The limiting definitions of the manifestations of Good.
Perhaps what many mean when they say they're atheistic
Is that they don't believe that Divinity can be defined.

Why do we insist on limiting the manifestations of Divinity
To only those that were written about long before our time?
Divinity can't be codified or limited to our own experience.
Is it not time to stop the naming and hating of "heretics"?

It seems that having faith is very much like making soup;
Calling it the same thing doesn't make it taste just the same.
Each person of faith we encounter tells the stories differently;
My religious friends' "Gods" sound mighty different to me.

One speaks of the God of revenge and restitution;
Another speaks of the God of sacrifice and pain.
Even the ones who seem to celebrate The Spirit
Still tend to limit their scope to their own scriptural homes.

How many times are we willing to repeat the "Holy" wars
Before we finally stop allowing human families to be slain?
Are we destined to forever repeat our painful history,
Or are we ready for the world to become the promised land?

Why are we afraid to hear what other people believe?
Why do we get angry when our own beliefs are questioned?
How many of us even understand where our beliefs originate?
How many of us know the sins of our own faith's history?

It seems that all faiths have a journey from fear of the unknown
To a place where the faith must go forward or it will die.
Growth is never comfortable; it takes much introspection
In order to plan the way that will lead us in a forward path.

Why do we insist on appointing others to study and think for us?
Don't we know that faith is shared in ways that agree with words?
Awe of The Almighty Universal Energy that sparks all life
Is an act of life-affirming adoration, unlike the culture of fear.

Faith is shared person-to-person, looking at the soul in one's eyes;
Teaching is best done in wondering and working side-by-side.
What we daily experience is what we most learn to live;
Words are subject to interpretation based on our own beliefs.

I'll heed the words of the people who daily celebrate,
And share their own blessings with a sense of gratitude.
I'll follow the leader who is singing while laboring,
Sharing in the burdens of those that their societies shun.