By Anita Tanner
Or right-click here to download the audio file: Communicable
“Religion is like small pox. If you get
a good dose, you wear scars.”
—Vardis Fisher
Dosage: Words
stretch and elongate,
strain and break
from overuse, disintegrate
or bind too tight,
the life blood cut off
from appendages,
sermons and meetings
distended.
Dosage: Stress,
a beehive programmed,
overloaded with motion—
classes, callings and activities.
Accelerated pace
an overstated emphasis.
We must run faster
than strength to keep up,
attend but not attending.
Dosage: Law
Rehashed on Sunday,
class doctrine seldom green
and growing, flux of disorder
and despair at the fringes
of lifetimes, distraction
an acquired habit, pupils
perpetually moving in and out
through the heavy fire-safe door.
Dosage: Sacrament
Dissociated from grace,
being prodigal, our minds and hearts
cannot fully wait with Him
for even one weekly hour.
Far beyond the bread and water,
far beyond His wounds and stripes,
we wander away—
our deepest scars self-inflicted.