10.3 (Spring 2006)
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Paul David Adkins

 

The Sins of Paul

I Timothy 1:15

. . . and it's not because of sex
or murder, or knocking off a bank.
     It's not because I blew off church
or showed up, stinking drunk.
     It's not because the Playboy channel
played in my motel room,
with my aging wife asleep
a thousand miles south.
 Sin is simply pulling my hand
from God's and taking off like a two-year old
down the grocery aisle. It is
doing, saying, thinking everything
I should not have done, said, or
thought. For instance,
     it was me knocking down doors,
        was me barking questions,
               me arresting Christians,
                     setting houses on fire,
                               burning.

 

Haggai 1:4-5

It's amazing the flaws
you never would have known about
if someone didn't care for you.
If someone important didn't see
potential, no one would care
that you put your shoes on backwards,
     misbuttoned your shirt, or
stepped outside wearing red sneakers
and green pants. It’s the classic
stubborn son versus his
     perfectionist dad. How their relationship
throughout the years never changes
except the son gets a little
less patient. And the penalties
are steeper, sharper. The father
wants his son to depend on him
     for everything. While the boy
wants to depend on himself. 
Because there’s nothing quite his own
like his own mistakes.

 

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