Poets & Saints

ScriptureMatthew 7:13–14 (NRSVUE)"Enter through the narrow gate;for the gate is wide and the road is easythat leads to destruction,and there are many who take it.For the gate is narrow and the road is hardthat leads to life,and there are few who find it."RefrainTruth is a road, and I am walking it.QuoteBrian Zahnd, from The Last Train Out of Monkey Town"Truth is not a laminated cardyou carry in your pocket,Truth is a long hard roadand you have to walk it."

ScriptureActs 9:2 (NIV)...and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus,so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way,whether men or women,he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.RefrainI belong to the Way. I am on the road.QuoteJack Kerouac, from On the Road"As we crossed the Colorado-Utah borderI saw God in the skyin the form of huge gold sunburning cloudsabove the desertthat seemed to point a finger at me and say,'Pass here and go on,you're on the road to heaven.'"

ScriptureJohn 1:14 (NIV)The Word became fleshand made his dwelling among us.We have seen his glory,the glory of the one and only Son,who came from the Father,full of grace and truth.RefrainThe Word became flesh. This is the greatest wonder.QuoteBrian Zahnd, from Unseen Existences"In that numinous moment I whispered a prayer:God, I want to spend the rest of my lifein a constant state of wonder.What happened next was wholly unanticipated.A reply whispered back,This is the greatest wonder of all —the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."

ScriptureMatthew 18:3 (NIV)And he said:"Truly I tell you,unless you change and become like little children,you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."RefrainI am learning to see like a child again.QuoteGeorge MacDonald"To cease to wonder is to fall plumb-downfrom the childlike to the commonplace —the most undivine of all moods intellectual.Our nature can never be at homeamong things that are not wonderful to us."

ScriptureLamentations 5:15–16 (NIV)Joy is gone from our hearts;our dancing has turned to mourning.The crown has fallen from our head.Woe to us, for we have sinned!RefrainGod has never grown tired of making the world.QuoteG.K. Chesterton, from Orthodoxy"But perhaps God is strong enoughto exult in monotony.It is possible that God says every morning,'Do it again' to the sun;and every evening, 'Do it again' to the moon.It may not be automatic necessitythat makes all daisies alike;it may be that God makes every daisy separately,but has never got tired of making them.It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy;for we have sinned and grown old,and our Father is younger than we."

ScripturePsalm 8:3–4 (NIV)When I consider your heavens,the work of your fingers,the moon and the stars,which you have set in place,what is mankind that you are mindful of them,human beings that you care for them?RefrainWonder is the arrow pointing me home.QuoteBrian Zahnd, from Unseen Existences"In the pilgrimage of the soultoward the homeland where we've never been,wonder is one of our most reliable way markers.True wonder is a bright flechapointing the pilgrim toward heaven."

ScriptureRevelation 21:2–4 (NRSVUE)And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem,coming down out of heaven from God,prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,"See, the home of God is among mortals.He will dwell with them;they will be his peoples,and God himself will be with them;he will wipe every tear from their eyes.Death will be no more;mourning and crying and pain will be no more,for the first things have passed away."RefrainNo one is finally lost. The road leads home.QuoteC.S. Lewis, from The Problem of Pain"I do not think that all who choose wrong roads perish;but their rescue consistsof being put back on the right road."

ScripturePhilippians 3:20 (NIV)But our citizenship is in heaven.And we eagerly await a Savior from there,the Lord Jesus Christ.RefrainI am not yet myself. I am becoming.QuotePope Benedict XVI, from Introduction to Christianity"Human persons are beings en route,beings characterized by transition.They are not yet themselves;they must ultimately become themselves."