Evangelist
 

I don't understand. What do you mean?

How can I believe what can't be seen?

What are you telling me? What is your story?

What is this thing you're calling glory?

Explain to me. Preach me a sermon

Don't shout down to me like I am vermin

Tell me the truth but tell it simple

And don't touch up your hair and flash your dimple.

I'm just a human. I'm just a child

Of man and street and I've run wild

Nobody's told me the way to live

They taught me to take and not to give.

And you're on t.v. and preaching fire

And calling me up out of the mire

But I don't know the way to go

I'm worldly and wicked and I don't know.

Come talk to me like I am a man

And not a number and nameless, I know that you can

Come sit down beside me and let's share a meal

And maybe I'll tell you the way that I feel.

Come learn of my life and learn of my losses

I'm not trash in the street like somebody tosses

I'm real and I feel and I'm searching, it's true

And maybe I'm finding my answers in you.

So teach me the lessons you've learned the hard way

And ask me to listen and I'll try to stay

But don't treat me like cattle on a slaughterhouse line

I've a heart and a brain and a soul and a mind.

You tell me about Jesus and you tell me He cares

Then you run away fast like you were never there

And I'm left with more questions than your answers were told

And I'm left in my loneliness and my hunger and cold.

I want to know the meaning of life, I want to know the truth

I want to know this God you serve but you can show no proof

You run me down your assembly lines and tell me I am saved

Take my money and take my time and say "I'm glad you gave."

Nobody's told me the story yet or introduced the Man

But told me He loved me and would meet my needs while you took what I had from my hands

And told me to pray, not showing the way and smiling that evangelist smile

And jumped in your limo and told your driver to go and dazzled my eyes with your style.

I need somebody to take the time to make Him real to me

I need somebody to open my eyes and teach me how to see

I need somebody to touch my heart and take me by the hand

I may be lost, far from the Cross but I am still a man.

Evangelist, tell me, what do you believe?

What tricks do you have hidden up your sleeve?

What magic can you produce in the dark

That can make Him appear and come into my heart?

I am not mocking, I want to know

I've seen so much of vice and woe

And I've been seeking something that's true

And maybe God sent me the truth in you.

But if God is real

His love I will feel

And if His love is true

Let me see it in you.

I've seen enough hypocrisy

Lying wonders, false humility

I've heard the lies, I've heard it all

Do you hear me now that I call?

Is my soul important? Do you see my face?

Am I to be forgotten when you leave this place?

I'm coming to you and I'm asking you now

To help me to find God, can you show me how?

Oh, next time in town, you'll look me up then?

And you tell me to be good and repent of my sins?

You give me a Bible and you hurry to lunch

And I wonder if you know God but I have a hunch.

End

by Rhonda Jackson April 26, 2004 12:30 a.m.

 

I REMEMBER BLUE SKIES

WHEN I WAS A CHILD I USED TO LIE

OUT ON MY BACK AND WATCH THE SKY

AND MAKE IMAGINARY FRIENDS

OUT OF THE CLOUDS BUT THAT WAS THEN.

THE SKY WAS BLUE, THE PUREST BLUE

AND CLOUDS WERE WHITE AND FLUFFY TOO

AND EVERY NOW AND THEN, A PLANE

WOULD CROSS THE SKY BUT BROUGHT NO RAIN.

AND WHEN IT'D RAIN, THE CLOUDS WOULD DARKEN

AND THUNDER ROARED AND LIGHTNING'D SPARK AND

ALL WAS NATURAL, ALL WAS REAL

BUT NOW NATURAL'S NOT THE WAY IT FEELS.

THE SKY IS BLUE WHEN I GET UP

BUT BY THE TIME I'VE HAD MY SECOND CUP

THE SKY IS FULL OF PLANES AND SMOKE

AND PEOPLE LAUGH LIKE IT'S A JOKE.

BUT IT IS NOT A JOKE TO ME

I WONDER WHY FOLKS CANNOT SEE

THE SKIES WE LOVED SO YESTERDAY

THEY'VE COME AND TAKEN THEM AWAY.

CONTRAILS, CHEMTRAILS, I DO NOT CARE

WHAT YOU MAY CALL THEM BUT THEY ARE THERE

MAKING X'S, MAKING CROSSES

AND FOLLOWING ORDERS FROM DARK OP BOSSES.

THEY TAKE BLUE SKIES AND MAKE THEM GRAY

THEY WORK ALL NIGHT AND THEN ALL DAY

THEY POUR THAT JUNK OUT ON OUR HEADS

IT'S A WONDER THAT WE'RE NOT ALL DEAD.

AND NOBODY QUESTIONS AND NOBODY ASKS

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THEIR TASKS

WHAT IS THE REASON THEY ARE THERE

DOESN'T ANYBODY SEE THEM? DOESN'T ANYBODY CARE?

WE LIVE IN A WORLD OF GRAY SKIES SO DREARY

AND ALL OF US WALK AROUND LISTLESS AND WEARY

WE CAN'T SEE THE SKIES THAT GOD MADE SO BLUE

AND WE CAN'T SEE THE SUN AND WE CAN'T SEE THE TRUTH.

MY CHILD IS GROWING UP IN A WORLD

THAT CARES NOT FOR IT'S BOYS AND GIRLS

IT CARES NOT THAT WE CAN'T REST IN OUR SLEEP

AND HAS MADE US ALL INTO A BLIND HERD OF SHEEP.

WHERE ARE THE BLUE SKIES I DELIGHTED IN THEN

WHEN I PLAYED WITH THE CLOUDS AND RAN IN THE WIND?

WHERE ARE THE SKIES THAT I CAN'T FIND TODAY

THEY HAVE TAKEN THEM FROM ME AND HID THEM IN GRAY.

by Rhonda Jackson April 25, 2004