Poems I wrote in class, roughly... six years ago

 I realize this is a bit off-topic, and I know that those people who appreciate my writings about faith and such may not like me deviating so much from what I typically share here, but... I wanted to show my facebook friends my poems with the appropriate spacing, so... I thought I would post them here.  The second poem is more on topic, but honestly it isn't as good as the first.  I hope you all enjoy my poetry here.

More Than Just A Board Game

The black and white, checkered eight-by-eight grid is a

brutal

battleground
for those who brawl with their minds.
The cavalier, whose name is flame,
with the face of a mustang

leaps

        OVER

        infantry.
He fights with the passion of a hundred red roses.
The cleric, whose name is iceberg,

dispatches the enemy

like

            a

                        cobra.
His motion is ebony or ivory.
The watchtower, whose name is duty,
is more precious than the priest or the paladin.
Its vision is direct and

unwavering, and its relentless defence of the

monarch

is

unyielding.
The empress, whose name is omnipotent,
her allure is found in knowing the secrets of

the pontiff and the                                                           citadel...
Her

                        fury

                                                      is

a         stream               of                                               lava.
the kaiser, whose name is victory
though fragile and hidden away

through most of the conflict
reveals his fortitude

in

the

end.

His confidence is a Himalayan mountain.
Finally the foot soldier, whose name is army ant
alone not so tough
as a company they are a swarm
destroying all they see

and everything

in

their

way.
All moving in consort 
they are capable of rivalling in beauty

to

a cloudless, starry night on the beach
to those who comprehend the secrets of the sixty-four squares.

The Rocks Cry Out

The Father's love can be so hard to experience

when the mundane surroundings of a cluttered apartment overwhelm.

It can be so hard to feel

since with such affection, life should be sunny days that ring like a bell.

Looking around the room

I see old books, movies,

and other humdrum.

I see no reason at all to be inspired about a deity.

However, if you truly observe

closely you will see the glory

of the Creator. Every redwood, every geyser

noticeably brings the notion that there is no God to a swift demise.

The beauty and brilliance of all that we heed

argues for the defence of a maker, vehemently.

Thoughts on the Value of Human Life

Miss Lady Gaga,

First of all, let me reiterate that I'm sorry you lost your dogs.  I truly am.  As someone whose family has had pets, I know that losing one or more of them is not unimportant.  I'm not trying to tell you you shouldn't grieve their loss, or be sad over what happened.  It matters.

I guess... when you say someone "risked their life" dealing with a man with a gun trying to protect your dogs... do you think that's a good thing?

I'm not saying you shouldn't appreciate the gesture.  But privately, you should admonish this man that no dog is worth a human life.  None.  Not saying they don't have some value- they do- but not anything close to a human life.

As I tried to say, my family has had pets.  Over the course of my life, my parents are now on their third dog, and have had... 5-6 cats.  Every time a pet passes away, we grieve.  It's sad.  However, at no point do we think that losing a pet is equal to, say, my brother or one of my sisters passing.  We never equate that.

A human has much more to give to the world than a dog, or even two dogs.  A human can get married, have kids, and be a source of love to so many people.  Never, should a man or woman be willing to sacrifice their life to save the lives of dogs, even if they knew the person kidnapping the dogs was going to kill the dogs.  Dogs just aren't worth it.

I hope this helps put your loss in perspective.  People lose sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, every day.  Those are much more significant losses, and worth dying to try to prevent.  No dog should have that much value in it's owner's eyes.  Dogs come and go.  People tend to have much more staying power.  No man should give up his life for a dog.  End of subject.  I realize my timing may not be perfect- I'm not sure when to post this.  But... it really bugs me that you think it is cool that a man risked his life trying to save your pooches.  Dogs do matter, but... they most certainly are not worth dying for.

Sincerely,

Sean Zlatnik 

Having Good Deeds Is NOT The Same As Having A Good Heart

Pondering spiritual realities... I'm pressed by the notion that people think they are going to Heaven because they have good deeds.  This is a dangerous thought to ponder.

"God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Proverbs 3:34, as is often stated in James 4:6.  The truth is, if you think you deserve Heaven, you could not find a more dangerous place to live.  You can believe you are Heaven-bound, that is fine; but do not think for a moment that you deserve it.

That's the thing.  The people who aren't that righteous fall for the same trap as those who aren't that smart.  The Dunning-Kruger affect, which states that the people who think they are smart often are not the same people who are actually smart, is true for righteousness as well.  The people who ARE righteous, often don't think that highly of how righteous they are, while those that are not righteous, often think they are more righteous than they really are.

The Bible explicitly states that if you do your good deeds so you can tell about them later, that that kind of righteousness is not real righteousness.  We need to be wary of using our good deeds to make a point.  Honestly, I don't like doing it.  It usually means I've gotten into a conversation that isn't healthy.  If you do good deeds to tell about them later, it often means you didn't do the good deed because of love.  Love has to be the only motivating factor for why we do what we do- not so we can win an argument later, not so that we can look good to other people, but purely because there was a need, and we could meet it.  That's really, foundationally, what love is- seeing a need, and meeting it.  We should be wary of speaking of our good deeds, because Jesus warned that people who do that will have their reward, and lose their treasure in Heaven.

The more proud you are, the more oblivious you are of how little love you show.  Love is a challenging thing.  Each of us will stand before God and weighed, both our good deeds and our mishaps, and God will peer into our hearts and evaluate WHY we did what we did, and how what happened in our past impacted us, and whether our hearts were in the correct place, or if we were doing things for the wrong reason, or what.  Only God can truly evaluate what goes on in the human heart.  Only God knows.  If you think your heart might be bad, I recommend asking God to give you a new heart.  He can, and will do so if you humbly ask him for one.  God loves this kind of prayer, and if you ask and believe he can do it, he will do it, and you will have a new reason to do the right thing.  Love is the best reason to do anything.  Love is the bottom line.  Choose love.

The Thought Police

 As a country, the left-hand side of the political spectrum wants to go down the road of firing people who disagree with them.  I am very uncomfortable with this kind of thinking and where it might lead.  Let me elaborate.

As a culture, we are more and more becoming intolerant of opposing views.  If someone espouses insane or even evil things, it seems our culture's reaction is veering off into punishing the person for thinking that way.  Look- people are going to espouse stupid and/or evil stuff.  I don't want the world to go down the path of automatically punishing someone for holding such views.  We think we are doing the world a favor by destroying someone's livelihood or their social status simply because they espouse a belief we abhor.  This kind of thinking does not do us favors.  If you are someone who thinks that the extreme right shouldn't be employed anywhere... think about it another way.  Imagine you were living in the Midwest, and you are prochoice.  You make a tweet about how you feel about abortion, which goes viral.  Suddenly your employer finds out and cans you.  How do you feel?  Because the shoe can always be on the other foot.  We can always find ourselves being the one with an unpopular opinion.  Doesn't mean we need to be canceled.  This is a real problem.

I'm not saying that doing evil should not have consequences.  If you are a business owner, and you don't hire black people because... you racist... that's a problem.  If you actually went to DC on January 6th and participated in the attempted overthrow of our government... see, that's not good because that's a crime and you belong in jail.  If all you did though, was espouse unpopular views on social media... see... companies shouldn't be firing people like that.  At least not for that reason alone.  Just think- some day you may be the one with the opinion that's unpopular with your employer, and you are going to be grateful if your employer doesn't decide to fire you for "badly representing the company."  As a Christian who holds views that could make him unpopular anywhere (reluctantly prochoice, believe homosexual behavior to be a sin, not sure environmental concerns should be made the highest priority over the needs of people, generally complicated views on almost everything) it matters a great deal to me that we as a culture don't treat people who disagree with us as though they are monsters who need to be severely punished.  I hope we can all peacefully coexist.  Should we try to engage with people who disagree with us?  Sure.  If someone is an absolute dick to you online, should you block them?  Sure.  But that doesn't mean we should have the aim of destroying anyone who disagrees with us.  As a Christian, I think we should attempt to connect with those with wild and unhealthy point of views, more than just making sure they get fired and no longer can work.  We shouldn't be the thought police...