Want: A Confession

And desire is quiet for a season, being run down before them; but when the hurry is over and the inquest past, the thief appears again alive, and is as busy as ever at his work.
-John Owen, 17th century spiritual writer


What can be said of want
but that it claws conversations
through—holding tight
with fiend fingers to its cloak.

It burrows in thin smiles
and slides down the slick
of a glutton’s tongue.

Want zips past mazes to my gut;
claiming sovereign, as if
it were necessity itself,
the most demanding muse.
And once its fingers
reach through me and grasp
the flesh, or slim
crisp dollars,
it quickly winds back
through veins
until it reaches the heart
curling up—
it is a seed in reverse—
masquerading
ignorance of itself
in me, as I choose
to not know of it.

Words too Big to Read

I'm reminded of a seminary professor I had referring to things in our cultural that are written with words too big to read. Cultural blind-spots which trick us into thinking we've reached some apex some utopia--or that we're at least headed there. The following quote should provoke thoughts to the contrary.

"Another age may learn to look upon our use of activities much as we look upon the use of the sword by an earlier age. Because in them money takes so prominent a place, ours may one day be known as the age of financial Christianity, just as we look upon that earlier age as the age of military Christianity. As we regard the sword so a later age may regard money. It may learn the wisdom of the Apostle and decline to use such an ambiguous weapon. If the sword was an ambiguous weapon which might easily confuse the issue, money and activities which depend upon money, are not less ambiguous and may as easily confuse the issue. The time is not yet full. We have yet to learn the consequences of our use of money."
... Roland Allen (1869-1947), Mission Activities [1927], included in The Ministry of the Spirit, David M. Paton, ed., London: World Dominion Press, 1960, p. 109 (see the book)

Piper Hearts Hauerwas

Piper hearts this Hauerwas preaching article. If that doesn't prompt you or fuel some interest... then I don't know what will. Here's the link.