Here's hoping...

Conversions

(by R.P.Edwards)

I believe in conversions

Newton

Luther

Paul

Who, through revelation

Saw self-made towers...fall

Eyes divinely opened

To see

Then kneel 

And turn

Then walk a new direction

The old direction...spurn

With knowledge born of bonding

With He whose way is light

To suddenly see contrast

Between the wrong...and right

To cease from fruitless labor

Amazing grace, receive

To know the righteous standing 

For those who just believe

Yes, I'm a believer in conversions. It's that light-bulb, ah ha!, now I see it! moment in a person's life when divine revelation is--usually by desperate invitation--given from above.

Along this line some of the more famous historical converts are mentioned in the poem. For instance, John Newton; the vile former slave trader who, after conversion, penned the most famous Christian hymn, Amazing Grace. Also, Martin Luther, who, after travailing over the seemingly unattainable goal of earning God's righteousness, his eyes were divinely opened to the liberating Biblical truth of salvation without works (again, amazing grace). And then there's the Apostle Paul, who, frankly, seemed quite content in his zealous persecution of the followers of the Nazarene until the Lord showed up and abruptly put an end to his spiritual blindness (temporarily blinding him in the process, Acts 9). Yes, conversion; each genuine believer has one and, although "earning" is not a part of the experience, the "works" that follow give evidence to the work...within.

So, why this little blurb about the "turning?" Well, as this humble offering is written mere hours before the president addresses the nation as to his "strategy" to deal with an evil in the east, I am (perhaps naively) hoping that a deeper work is being done in the chief executive. Often a subject of prayer, I know that the Commander in Chief has been in the crucible of late and, as the pestle of monumental problems has been increasing grinding on his psyche, I am hoping, hoping! that the "Christianity" he professes becomes a genuine joining with the enabler of kings. Yes, that like some before him (President wise) he lay bare his very human soul to the omnipotent being that can then...lift him up.

Here's hoping...

By-the-way, a final verse to the poem...

So take heart, fellow pilgrim

For they who scoff at true

Conversion suddenly appears

Just like it did

For you

****