{"id":2189,"date":"2022-12-02T10:54:46","date_gmt":"2022-12-02T18:54:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/?p=2189"},"modified":"2022-12-02T11:41:39","modified_gmt":"2022-12-02T19:41:39","slug":"out-of-context","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/2022\/12\/02\/out-of-context\/","title":{"rendered":"Out of Context"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

Out of Context<\/strong><\/p>\n

I change from my
\n\u201cLebowski 2024\u201d t-shirt
\ninto a white shirt and tie,<\/p>\n

find my King James Bible
\nbetween
\n\u201cAnother Roadside Attraction\u201d
\nand
\n\u201cJitterbug Perfume,\u201d
\nand
\nride my bicycle to
\nFirst Church of the Open Bible.<\/p>\n

My attempt to be
\nsurreptitious is
\nbetrayed by being
\nthe only one
\nwearing a tie to
\nBible Study.<\/p>\n

A friendly voice
\ncalls out:
\n\u201cWe play a little game.
\nLatecomers must give us
\ntheir favorite verse,
\nfrom memory.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod is Love,
\nI John 4:8,\u201d
\nI yell,
\nlifting my hands.<\/p>\n

From somewhere
\nnear the front
\na hand and voice
\nare raised:<\/p>\n

\u201cFear only God,
\nwho can destroy
\nboth soul and body
\nin hell,
\nMatthew 10:28.\u201d<\/p>\n

My life has been spent
\npreparing for this.<\/p>\n

I rip my tie
\nfrom my neck
\nand wave it
\nin triumph.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no fear
\nin Love,
\nbut perfect Love
\ncasteth out fear,
\nI John 4:18,\u201d
\nI shout.<\/p>\n

All eyes are on me,
\na finger points.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s out of context.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without words I turn
\nand walk.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to take
\nmy Self out of
\nthis context.<\/p>\n

(Photo by Aaron Burden; UnSplash)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Out of Context I change from my \u201cLebowski 2024\u201d t-shirt into a white shirt and tie, find my King James Bible between \u201cAnother Roadside Attraction\u201d and \u201cJitterbug Perfume,\u201d and ride my bicycle to First Church of the Open Bible. My attempt to be surreptitious is betrayed by being the only one wearing a tie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2189"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2195,"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189\/revisions\/2195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegillard.com\/erleichda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}