Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts

Sunday, April 9, 2017

Askew

Walking through a village in southwest Nigeria (c) 2016 

God, you made us so strong
Intricate and complex 
Us, your work of art 
Brightest jewels in your crown
Till we started etching long lines on your face

God, you are not wrong
I am telling you what you already know
Us, your work of art
Sharpest thorns in your crown
Rulers of a sooty subspace 

God, you made us so strong 
Intricate and complex
Us, your work of art
Loudest assholes at your barbecue

We are what you made us - askew 

Sunday, March 12, 2017

On being practical : A letter to my new atheist friend

A stilt house around Third Mainland Bridge. (c) Gbenga Onalaja, 2017. 

Hey, 

Hope you've been well? I'll get right to it. 

First. Being a Christian is not a burden. It's a perk. 

I would have been humble and kind to my neighbours anyway. It's simply more functional to cop the shine of a sovereign God while at it. (Call it brownie points if you like). 

You don't believe God exists. Indulge me, though, as I touch on this brownie point idea. 

It's bullcrap. 

God has mercies on those he will, and for those he doesn't, he doesn't. So yeah, my brownie points count for shit. 

His love and protection and all the unseeable little things he does are not based on anything I bring to the table. 

And I feel compelled to mention at this point that I am not a great Christian. Church isn't on my weekly laundry list. And I am one of the most creative dissemblers you'll meet. (And, of course, those are only the misdemeanors I can admit publicly.)

And on the long run, this Christianity might only be an opium - a numinous analgesic to relieve our existential pain. 

Maybe, like you said, we are a product of a random collocation of atoms. No heaven above or hell below.

But here's the rub: when we die, peek behind the curtain and find God isn't the force behind all the action, we would have lost nothing. I would have lost nothing.

Me you both will subsist in this new reality. None of us the better or worse off. 

But what if God really was there and planned to make good on all His promises from, say, the Bible? I don't have the answers to all your big question, but riddle me that.  

What if God exists and he is who says he is? 


Yours,

'Gbenga