while nigglets clown

i.

we wait for Bethesda-waters to churn

that we might dive in and be healed

but no angel arrives to stir the forgotten pool

nor the stagnant pond besides which we kneel

we need a hand, a body to drag us in

our crippled limbs too heavy to bear

ii.

we journey as if on the dark side of the moon

where craters bleed and sand dunes blow

pushing the heat from our cooling hearts

forcing the chill into our trembling hearts

shivers of silence encompass our poisoned minds

iii.

a little balm, a little care, a gentle joy

would brighten the gray side of our minds

guiding the pain of hist'ry hobbling our feet

into that mirror darkly we peer

into shadows bouncing back upon the glass

probing the faces that have molded our truth

iv.

the multiplication of sorrows soon forgot

rise behind the stained-glass of emancipation-lords

enjoying the circus while nigglets clown  

*Reflections of Alan Jones:

  -...many believers treat "God" as a mascot, hobby, or household god.  If our questions about God are narrowly based, then the kind of God we believe in will fit the shape of our questions.  If we believe, without question, that God is all powerful and really rules the universe, we are likely to suppress questions about this all-powerful God's responsibility for suffering, injustice, and evil.  If we are willing to ask shocking questions about, for example, the pain of God, then a wiser view of God may begin to emerge.  We need to let our uneasy conscience, our radical identification with others, and our sense of failure speak to us of God.

  -Faith requires the willingness to be wrong and to be found to be in the wrong.  Ever-deepening questions are its lifeblood.

  -The more we question, the more we are faced with questions of our identity.