Psalm 08:04 (AMP)

"What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of [earthborn] man that You care for him?"

This is just a reminder for me to stay humble. If it weren't for His grace, no human being would have received His attention, love, care, and help.

We like to think so highly of ourselves, but sometimes it's good to remember where we came from. Adam was formed from dust. Therefore, we are also dust.

And the most powerful Creator has decided to care for us; the dust. That is just awesome and profound.

Of all the Bible verses that excite me the most, let’s start with the badass motherfucker. Ezekiel 25:17. “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy My brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay My vengeance upon thee.”

The line is spoken in the movie Pulp Fiction by a character in a sparkling afro named Jules portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson. He says the line twice in the movie, once toward the beginning wearing a black suit before unloading led on a man killing him pretty savagely, and again at the end of the movie, wearing women’s soccer shorts and a baby-blue t-shirt depicting elementary cartoons in graphic font, and telling a robber at a diner with his pistol pointed to the robber’s cheek that he’s trying, he’s trying real hard to be the shepherd before deciding to give up his professional trade for wandering the earth like Moses.

There’s a book by literary critic Robert Alter called “Pen of Iron” that discusses American authors and the tradition of how they weave the Old Testament in particular into their works, Herman Melville taking on the leviathan from Jonah and taking on all poetry and prophets of the Old Testament in his epic, “Moby-Dick” from Job to Psalms and Proverbs back to Moses, and Faulkner adapting the story of David for his novel “Absalom, Absalom,” casting this character as a villain rather than hero we’re so used to studying, to set into motion a wickedness of self-profit in the creation and exploitation and destruction of the world that is the American South to come, and even Abraham Lincoln, a self-described struggling Christian if even a Christian at all, tracked down the phrasing and language and poetry of the Bible to deliver speeches among a broken nation as though his words themselves were iron hammer and nail. The book, “Pen of Iron” comes from Jeremiah 17:1, “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars.” It reminds me that I don’t come to the Bible because I’m a damn fine Christian, I come to it because I want to write damn fine American letters. This, and I want mercy. Afterall, some of the finest American Christians of all time owned humans in the name of Jesus Christ. Writing American fiction requires an awfully strange sense of humor, which can also be found in the Bible.

Of course I can’t hardly write about American storytelling without mentioning that son of a bitch and Nobel Prize Laurate for Literature, Robert Zimmerman, or as the world recognizes his name, Bob Dylan. Even before he converted to Christianity after a motorcycle wreck put him on the operating table where his organs were dissected and he nearly died, he still scoped through the King James Bible for his lyrics to put down from pen to paper. One of his finest songs in particular, “All Along the Watchtower,” is littered with the stuff of the Book of Isaiah, particularly from Chapter 21:5-9. “Watch in the watchtower.... Chariot with a couple of horsemen.... He cried, A lion... I stand continually in the watchtower.... And behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen.” What does all this mean, well, that might be the wrong question.

Besides the LSD trip of poetry that is Revelation, Isaiah is my favorite book in the Bible. It personifies what I find fascinating in the material of the Bible as a whole, the interpretation is nearly impossible and yet the possibilities of interpretation are practically infinite.

Now, Bob Dylan snubbed out, in my humble opinion, for the Nobel Prize, my daddy, Mr. Cormac McCarthy. One of his most underrated novels is “Outer Dark” about a brother and sister in an incestual relationship, and once the sister gives birth to their child, the brother takes the child and buries it out deep in the Appalachian woods of nowhere. The sister tracks through this unknown region filled with nightmarish darkness to come and find the child she brought forth into the world. The title of the novel comes from Mathew 8:12, “But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

McCarthy ended up writing the Western to end all Westerns, tracing the Bible from Genesis to Revelation to portray scalp-hunting in the Old West, and one of many efforts in the novel, Blood Meridian, the author achieves composing what is now considered an American Bible of the material world.

One of the finest Western pictures I’ve ever seen--in fact as a tradition my brothers and I used to watch it every Christmas Eve--is The Proposition, with a screenplay written by Australian singer-songwriter Nick Cave. He also wrote, for a series called The Pocket Canon, an introduction to The Gospel of Mark.

There’s an American writer from Mississippi named Barry Hannah, who never achieved true commercial success in his time, but in one fine moment, published a story in The New Yorker which captures a scene of a Christian shaping his life in the image of Christ who succumbs to depression so great that he shoots himself in his bathtub in a trailer home that he doesn’t even own, and is a story which can be heard still on the magazine’s podcast, as read by George Saunders. Barry Hannah struggled with severe alcoholism throughout his life and while teaching creative writing at the University of Alabama he would be fired for pulling out a loaded pistol while piss-drunk and fired it in the classroom, and most importantly, he’d be solicited to write an introduction for the American publication of The Gospel of Mark. If I remember correctly, he highlights one of his favorite moments in the entire history of poetry from this world, and Mark happens to be the only Gospel to mention the scene and it occurs in chapter 14, verses 51-52. “And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him: And he left the linen cloth, having fled from them naked.” It reminds me of belligerence and sin and redemption and grace in one moment, one breath, an entire life, one sentence.

I’ve never really been religious even though my parents are straight razored Catholics. Never was attracted to praying or using an external being as a crutch through life (it is helpful though), and growing up in the Middle East didn’t make it any easier. Turned me off even more since we’d be doing masses in someone’s cramped living room, and - at the time - it felt like everyone there was desperate for a sense of normalcy, grasping at straws to make them feel at home. I don’t blame them now though, realized that it gave them some semblance of purpose and community.

But Friday mass had more of a “hanging out” vibe compared to that awe-inspiring atmosphere inside a church. Where rows and rows of pews waved with a sea of antennas, each one randomly dialing in and out inbetween the sermon’s station and their own one playing songs of taxes. When a cough or a baby’s cry joined the chitters of birds perched on top of Christ’s nest-turned crown, and would then play cosmic pingpong with the domed ceilings. Their residuals would peter off into the hum of airconditioners, before being echoed back again by another cough from the other side.

The former wasn’t really a good environment to drill in God and religion, and I was a nihilistic teen, drifting off with the trend and thinking he knew what was what. Not saying the latter could’ve helped with that, but at least it was a free concert with jaw-dropping acoustics instead of a boxed room packed with sardines - our body heat drowsed in melatonin.

As I got older, and less stupid, I realized religion’s a good framework to build your life around, and warmed up to the idea of it, accepting that everyone has their own way of getting through the days and weeks. Still not fully into religion as a whole, but atleast I can see how applicable and beautiful the messages are as I sift through generations of systemic manipulation, rather than closing myself off due to the more extremist takes on it.

One passage in particular is 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

A good reminder for what matters in life: Love who you can, when you can, and where you can, especially yourself. And that, without it, you’re pretty much bones with meat hanging onto you. Also points out that you don’t really know everything in the present, and drills in the whole “hindsight’s 20/20” aspect of life. Gives you a good reason to push through heavy times and long darks.

Didn’t find it from the bible though - never read it - but came upon the passage from Famous Prophets (Stars) by Car Seat Headrest. A woman closes off the 16 minute epic with the last few verses over a bedrock of fleeting guitar wails and percussions. Then both instruments gradually teeter off, giving the last few words some space to breathe.

I’m still figuring it out, trying not to listen to that voice that thinks it’s all just some hippie koombaya shit, and just trying to find a balance in between instead.

"But tell me this—since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died (1 Corinthians 15:12‭-‬20 NLT)."

1 Corinthians 15:12‭-‬20 are my personal life verses. I sometimes find it very easy to doubt and question, and I love that Paul addresses the very same concerns in these verses. I appreciate being able to read words in Scripture from an early church leader that acknowledges the doubts, gives a worst case scenario if the concerns are true, then reaffirms his belief in Jesus for the church of Corinth (and now all of us) to hear. I lean on this passage to boost my own faith often, and these verses are one of the foundations I depend on with my own spiritual growth.

“I will not forget you; I have carved you on the palm of my hand” ~ Isaiah 49:15

I first remember seeing this quoted in a pro-life newsletter. It was a reminder that everyone, no matter how small or unwanted, is loved by God. Everyone. From the world famous billionare to the lowly toilet cleaner unknown to the rest of the world; from the old bachelor waiting to die alone to the tired mamma collapsing in her chair at the end of the day with a toddler in her arms, praying for the vacation that never seems to come.

And those innocent children, torn from the safest place, murdered in the name of justice ... well, God remembers them, too. In His eyes they have souls, bodies, lives, no matter how small they are. Each one of them has a name. Each had a future.

He will not forget.

Mathew 7:1-2 Judge not others for unto the point you judge them you shall also be judged.

This is my favorite verse because it is where most christians fail. They assume someone is going to go to hell for tatoos, cussing, premarital sex, homosexual realtions...the list goes on and on, but when someone makes that judgement towards someone else that is how God will judge. This just speaks out to the hipocracy of the church. If everyone left the judging up to God on who goes to hell or who is not right with the lord then there would be no more religious wars. Think about that. Many wars have been fought because christians wanted to spread the word and save other people's souls assuming that they were not going to Heven. God does say share my word and show the world my love, but not one time was Jesus ever cruel to the beggers or the prostitutes. He loved them and never condemned them. He said change your ways and follow me. He said I love you for who you are. Let he who has never sinned cast the first stone. All of this relates back to making judgments of others. I hope this helps everyone think a little harder before they judge someone or condemn them. I will admit it is a tough habbit to overcome as it is bread into most of us christians, but remember that God says he will judge you in the same way you do others.