Monday, July 11, 2011

Who Says You Can Say These Things?

You speak the sound of thunder in the cloud.
Who says you can say these things?
Out of your book come words that will not move.
Who said you could say them aloud?

There you are in the marketplace,
there in the Hall.
What man gave you such a sword to wield?
Here and there I go for the sake of my will.
Who set you up as high judge over all?

Tell me what you were thinking this morning.
Who told you to lay those words on the page?
What were the instructions whispered to you that
Show the place where truth and words
are joining?

I will answer but first you will answer me—
Who told you to sit on the throne of your own heart?
What visions have you had that narrowed your way?
When you speak on these things, I will answer thee.

— David Dickens, Nothing Hypothetical

2 comments:

Jim Swindle said...

It's a good poem, and I'd missed it on David's blog.

John Calvin said something to the effect that the human heart is an idol factory. In our culture, the most tempting idol is usually self. It's so tempting to want MY glory instead of the Lord's glory.

George Patsourakos said...

Man, by human nature, tends to be more concerned with his own ideas than those of Jesus. In fact, man -- in today's current trend of selfishness -- tends to be concerned primarily about himself in all aspects of his life, with little or no thought of Jesus.