Last weekend, I shared my testimony, preached on Judges 17, and taught on pastoral care at a church in western Sydney. I shared a couple of poems there, which resonated with a lot of people and I thought I would share them here. Both come from Briar Whitehead’s book, ‘Craving for Love: Relationship addiction, homosexuality, and the God who heals’ and both are cited from other sources:
THE PIT
A man fell into a pit and couldn’t get himself out of it.
Respectable people came and said: “We don’t associate with pit-dwellers”, and walked away;
An empathist came and said: “I really feel for you in that pit”, and walked away;
A sociobiologist came and said: “You were born in that pit”, and walked away;
A psychiatrist came and said: “It can be very destructive to remove people from pits they were born into”, and walked away;
A psychologist came and said: “Accept your pit, that way you’ll be happy”, and walked away;
A gay activist came and said: “Fight your your right to stay int he pit”, and walked away;
A politician came and said: “Discrimination against pits is illegal”, and walked away;
A researcher came along and said: “What an interesting pit”, and walked away;
A religious fundamentalist came and said: “You deserve your pit”, and walked away;
A religious liberal came and said: “Your pit is God’s beautiful gift to you”, and walked away;
A charismatic came and said: “Just confess you’re not in the pit”, and walked away;
His mother came and said: “It’s your father’s fault you’re in that pit”, and walked away;
His father came and said: “It’s your mother’s fault you’re in that pit”, and walked away;
His wife came and said: “It’s all my fault you’re still in that pit”, and walked away.
But Jesus, seeing the man, loved him, and reaching into the pit,
put His arms around him and pulled him out.
***
THE MASK OF ADDICTION
I keep my mask with me everywhere I go
In case I need to wear it, so ME doesn’t show.
I’m so afraid to show you ME, afraid of what you’ll do
You might laugh at ME, or say mean things
Or I might lose you.
I’d like to take my mask off, to let you look at ME
I want you to try to understand
And please love what you see.
So if you’ll be patient and close your eyes
I’ll pull it off really slow
Please understand how much it hurts
To let the real ME show.
Now my mask is taken off. I feel naked! Bare! So cold!
If you can still love all you see,
You’re my friend, as good as gold.
I want to save my mask and hold it in my hand
I need to keep it handy if someone doesn’t understand
Please protect ME, my new friend, thank you for loving ME true,
But please let me keep my mask with me, until I love ME too.