Ph: Faith: Understanding Nature Poem by Brian Johnston

Understanding Nature

Part 1: What (I Think) God Wants You to Know!

Some people don't understand Nature,
Feel death and pain prove there's no God
Or if there is He is a monster,
His empathy for us a fraud.

They say all of Nature's uncaring,
No reason to posit a God,
No Creator under the mattress,
And people who think so are odd.

Most atheists aren't open minded,
More dumb than believers they curse,
They live their whole lives without Bible,
Rejecting its comfort and Verse.

Should Bible be only man's wisdom,
Through years' mighty lessons were learned,
But atheist alienation
Means lots of their fingers get burned.

No scientist thinks Nature's plan-less
Though plan's authorship is unknown
If not His plan, perhaps another?
For truth in the Bible's not stone.

Though Christ taught us words of His Father
A parable's not really truth!
But teaches God's will to the masses
As parent might speak to a youth.

If you are not God should you grumble
That scripture is not always clear?
Rejoice truth exists and be grateful
All wisdom is not that austere.

The Golden Rule's just one example
Of Law that brings Grace to your life
Although there are some who reject it
The truth of it cuts like a knife.

The beauty that all see in Nature
Can't hide the fact devil exists
Man's freedom to seek his own power
Explains why such evil persists.

God's beauty is He is consistent,
Tomorrow the same as today,
Though doubter's fear their death's departure
Their brain is just on holiday!


Part 2: The Value of Pain and Suffering.

God created all in His image
Which surely implies that God learns
And overturns rigid believers
With all of their stagnant patterns.

And who will say God didn't suffer
When Jesus was nailed to the cross,
Though child's death is greatest pain man knows
Can man really measure His loss?

Don't feelings define our existence?
Who wouldn't be lost without theirs
And trying to live life without them
Like solitaire musical chairs.

Are feelings a curse if we own them?
Is death all that bad if there's soul?
Why wouldn't our death be like waking
In heaven or hell, what's your goal?

If souls don't exist what's your problem?
Best guess, we've just one time around,
Your life will be just what you make it
And then you're at peace in the ground.

Whatever you think of my logic,
Your feelings are gold on this earth,
Protect you much more than they hurt you,
Are all that establishes worth.

Best say a prayer now for this blessing
If God's there to listen or not
Give feelings a home where your heart lives
For they can still help you a lot!

How better could God honor soul's life
Than sharing His feelings in love
And though we see through the glass darkly
We're still tasting stuff God's made of.

And suffering really is measure
Of feeling's temp beyond the norm
But even when it gets excessive
Its intent is still to inform.

So rather than choosing depression
Consider that you're not alone
God graced to survive any battle
Though this life is really just loan.

In "getting" our soul's evolution
We start to claim kinship with God,
In valuing faith over knowledge
We let go of ego's facade.

And Science itself is a model.
A new form of God's poetry
Its parables hint at His wisdom
To save us from idolatry.

The wisdom of God is your servant
That's how you can know it's from Him,
Vibration that touches your heart strings
Makes earthly noise sound like a hymn.


Part 3: God's Nature Is Evolution

If God is real surely His Nature
Is always in strict harmony
With everything He has created
For truth cannot be fantasy!

And Science has value like Bible
For both are creations of God
Attempts to dis one or the other
Unseemly and really quite odd.

But Bible is subject to man's whims,
While Science bows just to man's test,
Man's interpretation his Gospel,
Agreement where scientists rest.

While men think that gravity's certain
New science calls "fictitious" force
As answers from Science grow subtle
Man's prophets just ply stale discourse.

It's "Big Bang" that sparks evolution
Though hydrogen's all that exists
Condensing at last, growing massive
Till heat born of structure resists.

And one by one stars are ignited
That age, fuel depleted, explode
A new element evolution
And chemistry on space unload.

This process done over and over
Until worlds and planets are formed
Where chemicals solvent in water
By atomic rules are transformed

And life starts evolving like magic
As lightning strikes spark God's intent,
Unstoppable new evolution
Where life is revealed as God's rent.

From stardust man's cradle emerges,
From stardust man's form took its shape,
God's plan, evolution from get-go,
Bacteria, fish and then ape.

It's vanity you think you suffer
It's vanity you think God's dead
It's vanity you feel deserted
As you lie alone in your bed.

This world was created to serve you
As you were created to serve
In service you'll find true fulfillment
As you give what you would deserve.