From poetry to light pollution

I feel I have broken through a structural wall when it comes to my ponders on poetry. I have discovered that content and form can indeed help each other out - it can be about both things! Hurrah! All is not lost!

I have found in the past week that using structure and form can actually help me to organise my thoughts. For example my poem, Train Journey, that I posted the other day was birthed out of both conviction on a subject and the use of the acrostic form. I had a huge mindmap of ideas, but it wasn't until I laid down the form I was going to use that I found I was able to arrange those thoughts into a coherent form. Having discovered this I had a look back through some of my previous pieces (many of which were posted on facebook before I took the plunge and started this blog) and discovered that perhaps I would rearrange where I have placed the line breaks in light of what I have been learning in class... a task that may take some time and that I may never get around to doing, we'll see!

My huge mindmap of ideas that pre-existed Train Journey is really focussed around Matthew 25:31-46 where Jesus is teaching about the final judgement. He talks about how when the Son of Man returns He will separate the sheep from the goats - those who have fulfilled what was asked and those who have not, what it boils down to are the following six points:

• Feeding the hungry
• Giving the thristy something to drink
• Inviting strangers into our home
• Clothing the naked
• Caring for the sick
• Visiting those in prison

Jesus says that those of us who do not do these things for the least of the people amongst us, have not done the same for Him, the penalty is eternity in hell. Wow... this stuff isn't optional, this is bare minimum expectation. But how many of us feel we have a personal relationship with Jesus and ignore most, if not all, of these points and yet still expect to be greeted as good and faithful servants when we meet our Maker? Of course, can we be achieving these commissions in less obvious ways, for example, visiting someone who is, in essence, a prisoner in their own home because they are unable to get out in bad weather, or cooking dinner for our flatmates, or inviting a new person from church or at work round for the evening... does it blatantly have to be the homeless, the starving and those on their deathbed...? Do we take it seriously enough to make sure that we are achieving it at whatever level? Are we convicted about it?

I've been thinking a lot about "the least" too. I'm reading "The Irresistable Revolution - Living as an Ordinary Radical" by Shane Claiborne and it is for sure challenging me on my perceptions of poverty and lifestyle. Like in any book by any author I find some parts massively inspiring stuff but also find I don't necessarily agree with other parts.I have, however, taken a couple of things in particular to heart. The first is a conviction that our lives should look incredibly different to the lives of those around us who do not follow Jesus. Jesus told us he is The Way. He really meant that! His way of living was massively different to those around Him, it was a way that brought life and freedom and it's a way still accessible for us today if we dare to stand out and look different, if we dare to be set apart.

My other conviction from reading Shane's book is that in order to have a real and lasting impact in a community we have to become a part of that community, we have to become one of them. You can't just minister to the poor, you have to become poor. You can't just minister to people, you have to get on their level and experience life through their eyes, in their shoes. For me this is a very timely discovery as I begin to look ahead to what comes next in my life. I feel sure that God is calling me to be a part of a community (not a town or a church or a household, but a place of work). He is calling me to be on the same level as those my ministry will be to (or perhaps "with" would be a better word to use?) He is making me one of them.

We are called to shine light in the darkness, but if we are too afraid of the darkness to get in amongst it, what hope have we got? We are promised that the darkness can not overcome the light, what more do we need to get out there and start polluting the world with Jesus' light?