Water To Wine: Some of My Story

by Brian Zahnd

Turbulance I was once so sure So sure of myself So sure that what I wanted Was one in the same with what God wanted How could it be otherwise? Child of God that I am I was once so sure I was taught to assert my will In the name of the Lord, to be sure For the name of the Lord is a talisman To endorse and empower my will to be done For what else could my god have to do But to make all my wishes and dreams come true? I was once so sure That I knew what was good for me And what was good for me Was good things for me Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Oh, I knew better than to say it just so I knew how to dress it up in altruistic robes And how to crown it with chapter and verse Nothing like a plucked verse to make you so sure (Yet it and I weren’t all bad, oh no, far from it) But the point of this confession is I was once so sure That I knew good and evil, right and wrong In me, in thee, in theology, in policy But there’s a snake that lives in that tree Is original sin a sin of epistemology? To be so sure Certitude in doctrine and politics And just where the dividing line runs Safe in the certain knowledge That I’m on the right side Of the right-and-wrong line I was once so sure And it’s fun being so sure People like it when you’re so sure (If they share your certainty) And isn’t that what faith is? Being so sure? Well... I’m not so sure Cock-sure, can’t-miss certainty Is not the faith that I see When I look at the patriarchs, prophets, and poets And Jesus (“My God, My God, why have...