God has been constantly reminding me of a poem that I wrote almost ten years ago. I feel compelled to post it here today.
Carbon Monoxide
I'm surprised I'm not already dead
Due to the years I spent under your spell
Day after day worshiping you instead of Him
Thinking that you could be the life that would free me from my personal hell
Still I breathe you in
You have no distinct smell to detect
You blend in with the life giving truth
And slowly you kill with your slight defect
Slower than the obvious
So still I notice you not
Though you never become observably noxious
You are working a sure and steady rot
You make it easy to slumber
Because I've worked so hard to obtain
Convinced that He thought of me merely as a number
Not realizing that it was all in vain
As you creep in silently
Cowardly in the darkness of night
With distortions of the truth you weaken me
By the time I wake you've already stolen my rest, my might
You make me think that living with you is normal
When there is nothing that is farther from the truth
Setting me up to fail under your false expectations
But I've woken to your lack of proof
I'm one of the lucky few
Who had the opportunity to catch a breath of fresh air
I took that opportunity
And rode that wind straight out of your lair
You will not silently kill me
And I'll sound the alarm loud and clear
Saving as many with me
As many as are willing to hear
As many as can be touched
As many as can be awoken
As many as will exchange their phony crutch
As many as will listen to any bit of truth spoken
"Wake up and leave this place!
Breathe no longer the foul air of death!
Come to the clean smell of grace;
Be free from the harsh law and it's stench!"
"Receive the Holy Spirit and His strength
Blowing straight from the mouth of God
The Truth has come that we may have strength
He has come that we may know God!"
I once listened as my youth pastor told our group a quote about religion. It went something like, "Religion is like an inoculation--it's enough like the real thing to protect you from the real thing." I was really struck by the idea that religion is a lot like carbon monoxide. You can sleep yourself to death and not even know it. Many homes now have CO detectors in case the levels become dangerously high. Many times I think that's what it takes to wake us up to the danger we're in, some alarm that breaks us out of our normal life long enough for us to actually question the deception that we have just assumed was the real thing.
The only solution is to breathe deeply of fresh air. We must seek the Holy Spirit no matter what the implications to our social structure, personal life and most of all comfort level. I mean our deep comfort level. You know, the things that we tell ourselves about ourselves so that we can feel like we are accepted by God.
There is no substitute for hearing God speak His acceptance and love over us. If it has been awhile since you last heard God Himself proclaim His love for you, you need to get someplace open (spiritually, not necessarily physically) and get a breath of fresh air.
Lord I ask that You would have mercy on Your people and give us eyes to see and ears to hear that we would not be so easily deceived.
Lord I ask that You would have mercy on Your people and give us eyes to see and ears to hear that we would not be so easily deceived.
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