The Boundaries Dissolve: Essays and Poems Reflecting on Christian Life in a Fallen World

Copyright © 2014 Jim Owen.

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ISBN: 978-1-4525-9714-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-9716-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-9715-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014907876

Balboa Press rev. date: 6/5/2014

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Essays

Rrrr and the Problem of Suffering — at Two-thirty in the Morning:

America: Next to Israel God’s Most Favored Nation?

Speaking of September 11th and God in Retrospect

The Forgotten Man Behind the First Amendment:

My Mother Died; Now It Is Personal

Poems

I Can’t (or Won’t) Explain

Eden Creek in Reveille Valley

In Loving Memory

The Devil Danced with Emma Beck

God I’m Old

Thoughts on An Academic Conference and the Second Coming

Thunderstorm

On Hearing of the Death of a Famous Poet I Never Met or Read

The Ides of March

Live for Now—A Post-Modern Tragedy

So Much for the Desert Tortoise Days

For Roberta

The Certainty of Things Not Seen

Nicodemus

May 12, 2007

The Heart? No Thank You!

The Boundaries Dissolve

Acknowledgements

It would be grievously rude of me to ignore those who contributed to the publication of these essays and poems. First, I am indebted to The Master’s College for providing a generous grant (a thoughtful gift for 35 years of teaching), which made the publication of this book possible. Next, I am truly indebted to the following people for reading the manuscript (or portions thereof) and offering encouragement and helpful suggestions: Dr. John Hughes, Dr. John Stead, John Stone, Christy Rhodarte, and Steve Dixon. A special thanks to Esther Chua, Chair of the English Department, for reading the entire manuscript and offering good council. She also assisted in the selection of poems included in this book and has always been an encouragement regarding my poetic writings. Also a special thanks to Hugh Boyd for a careful proof-reading of the manuscript, thus helping me avoid embarrassment. Finally, a hearty thanks to Jacqueline Jones, the TA for the English/History Departments for laboring with me in putting the manuscript in order all polished and shiny!

Introduction

A few words are in order to alert the reader as to what is ahead. I am an old man—78—who has followed the Lord Jesus for over 40 years, and has taught history at The Master’s College for slightly over 35 years. Out of that mix of lengthy experience surely one earns the right to have and express a variety of opinions on just about everything—and I do and have. Tongue in cheek aside, hopefully they are expressed with thoughtfulness and charity. In addition, for good or ill, in my old age I have taken up the habit of writing down these numerous opinions. The poems and essays included in this slim volume are but a sampling of what I have written over the last decade or so.

It is not that I am a prolific scribbler. I am not. Long periods will pass and I have written neither sentence nor verse. But then something will capture my attention, or someone will say or write something that irritates me, and I find myself sitting down and writing—the old fashion way, with pencil and paper. And when I do write I usually do not write with a particular audience in mind. In main, I write mostly to understand my own thinking, to achieve as much clarity as possible, or in the case of poetry, due to its existentialistic nature, to verbalize the moment, incident, or thought before it vaporizes—or a senior moment intrudes.

Sometimes I will share what I have written with a few others, sometimes not. It is not that I am against publishing though I find myself increasingly impatient with the editorial process as I get older. I do have three books published to date. Two are in printed form and one is posted on the internet. But this is not the ultimate purpose for which I write. I would have to say this is doubly true concerning my poetry. For some reason poetry always seems more personal than prose, and one is always more cautious in sharing it. Thus, what appears in this book, overall, is being subjected to public scrutiny for the first time. It is my hope and prayer that the reader will discover something of value, something to nod and agree with—and simply to enjoy—within these pages.

The five essays included are self-explanatory and therefore need no introduction. The reader may not agree with what I have written but it won’t be because of a lack of clarity in my prose. The poems, on the other hand, may be more difficult for the reader for two reasons.

First is the problem of style. Born during the Great Depression, I came to maturity during the 1950s and joined the Beat generation. (You have to be really old to remember them.) A great deal of the poetry we wrote in those drop-out days (and we wrote a great deal of poetry), was done in free verse or blank verse. Such poetry turned its back on the rhythm and meter of traditional poetry, and sought poetic meaning and passion in how words fitted together, the inherent poetry embedded in the natural flow of speech. (As an example, consider Martin Luther King’s I have a dream speech.) The task of the poet was to reveal these characteristics of everyday language so that the reader was moved or captivated by them also. A few years ago, when I started writing poetry once more, I found the writing habits and style of that now distant young beat poet was still there.

A second difficulty the reader may have with my poems may be the poetic discourse itself. I find myself drawn again and again to Ephesians 2:12 where the Apostle Paul writes that those outside of Christ are without hope and without God. How does that work out in the unbelievers’ attitudes, longings, words/writings, and actions? I explore this question in a number of poems but seek to do so from a secular perspective. Thus Christian conventions and Christian clichés (and, yes, we are guilty of them) are avoided but not the gospel. Poets are, or ought to be, part prophet and part truth-teller and thus bound to give offense, even Christian poets. And I believe that in order to understand and love the lost world, as Christ intended, we must listen to that world, and not simply impose upon it a cliché or a proof-text. In doing this, in being unconventional in a Christian sense, I realize that the words I have chosen to achieve my intent might upset some believers. It would be best, then, rather than be offended, if they didn’t read those poems. Each poem has been given an introduction to assist the reader in this regard.

Whatever you do read, I would appreciate feedback, whether you agree or disagree with what I have written. One area in which I have a great interest and have done considerable writing is the creation/evolution clash, and the necessary historicity of the first eleven chapters of Genesis. But much of what I have written in this area is not included in this book because of the length of those essays. If you wish to read the most recent and mature work I have done on this subject, contact me at The Master’s College and we can arrange to get them into your hands ([email protected]).

Essays

Rrrr and the Problem of Suffering — at Two-thirty in the Morning:

THE THEOLOGICAL MUSINGS OF AN INSOMNIAC

Any God that would allow suffering and pain is a pervert, a sadist! shouted the radio talk show host at his caller. It was two-thirty in the morning and I was reluctantly awake. As I sometimes do at such times, I put on my earphones and tuned in to a late night talk show. Usually a guaranteed inducement for sleep. I came in on the middle of the above tirade. It was supposed to be a conversation only it was not. The talk show host was berating a Christian who had called to tell him how Jesus had delivered the caller from years of horrible drug abuse. The talk show host, let us call him Rrrr (his first name begins with that letter), denigrated the caller’s faith, taunting him by asking him what kind of loving God would allow him to go through such a degrading experience to begin with. And it must be admitted that the caller was no match for Rrrr’s vituperous verbal assault and control of the microphone. The caller’s faith was simple and direct—Jesus had saved him from sin and drug addiction.

However, Rrrr would have none of it and was raising the perennial, and for folks like Rrrr, who is very progressive in his politics, proudly atheistic, hostile toward political and moral conservatives, and most of all contemptuous toward evangelical Christians, the seemingly unanswerable (and therefore crushing) question of why, if God is good and loving and all powerful as Christians aver, does He allow soul-crushing pain and suffering, both physical and mental? Why does He allow bad, terrible, even horribly evil things to happen to decent, good, or innocent people? Why does He allow a drunk to veer across the double yellow line and slam head-on into the car of a dearly loved, thoughtful and tender daughter? If, as Augustine maintained, mankind is a mass of perdition and cannot not sin, it is also true that mankind is a mass of pain and suffering and cannot not cease inflicting such upon itself. And always it seems, it comes to rest most cruelly upon the children. One needs only visit the cancer ward at a children’s hospital to feel one’s Christian faith being assaulted by seemingly unacceptable suffering of the innocent. Surely He who said that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these can show mercy in the presence of such unfathomable and apparently unjustifiable suffering?

Rrrr, of course, was not making his accusation from a heart that genuinely sought an answer from God. Rrrr could not be mistaken for a modern day Habakkuk. Rrrr claims to be an atheist so there is no God to ask or an answer to expect. He simply wanted to publicly crush psychologically this stupid Christian by showing him how inane was his talk of God loving us or respecting us by allowing us to exercise our free will. Rrrr’s charge, though, despite his bitter attitude, is formidable, and appeals to free will seem inadequate in face of the magnitude of evil, whether accidental or capricious or deliberate, let loose in the world, and which has caused and continues to cause anguish and suffering, that if contemplated with any seriousness, is beyond the