don't tell me what to do, tell me who to be

i have been living under the law.

the law is good and perfect

and the measure of

impossibility

by which we discover the impossibility

of human godship, that nature we carry like oxen,

the original sin: belief that man is his own destiny,

the author and perfecter of his living,

and not the written page or the pen

or the tree that was cut and stripped to paper

and therefore, it is the roadmap to the truth: we are created.

but what is the gospel?

is it a human exchange: an impossible law for a possible one?

if so, we believe the lie the first was built to expose.

that we can. do. it. ourselves.

no. not a new law.

(like a simple shaking free from the impossible law of

crazy jews in the desert)

(like a choosing instead a new law that is easier

to obey, to earn your spot in a heaven that probably

doesn't exist as you think it does)

I do not want to trade impossibility for impossibility and call it 'life'.

I want to call it death as it was first called.

this is our current history, our zombie song:

"don’t teach me about politics and government

just tell me who to vote for

don’t teach me about truth and beauty

just label my music

don’t teach me how to live like a free man

just give me a new law

(pre-chorus)

i don’t wanna know if the answers aren’t easy

so just bring it down from the mountain to me

i want a new law

don’t teach me about moderation and liberty

i prefer a shot of grape juice

don’t teach me about loving my enemies

don’t teach me how to listen to the Spirit

just give me a new law"

doesn't truth come in packages

delivered in puzzles

taught to you your whole life in pieces

so that when it finally rings true, it is assembled

from the familiar bones you've carried.

it is the gospel of grace,

the spirit written on your heart

that obeys the law

it has been said,

the man trying to be original never is,

the man telling the truth is almost always original

the man trying to make a good impression never does,

the man being himself and taking interest in another makes a good impression.

jed, stop pretending that you are living by the gospel

by shackling on a list of self-accomplishment by obedience,

by loving out of obedience

instead of loving out of who you are and who they are and who you are together

no one feels loved when they discover they are being loved by reason of looking lonely, sad, isolated, poor, or meek.

a man feels loved when who he is

is delighted in by another being who they are.

just remember your first love

and seek to know nothing but what Paul sought to seek to know nothing but

do not love the deeds of Christ

but Him

and His deeds will flow from right purpose through my fingers

and indeed I will not say it was me.

a mosaic suddenly makes a face.

i will certainly edit this in the coming days, as I find more clay fractures in the sand and place them rearrange them to fit.