I'm Not Mental, I'm Just A Christian. Poem by Ema Bovoro

I'm not mental. I'm just a Christian.

It's easy to speculate and criticize and develop some sort of provisional diagnosis.
To sit, mock, bully and laugh.
To judge, condemn and walk all over in a justifiable rant.

But I'm not mental.
I'm not delusional.
I'm not trapped in a colonial, slave like, cultish mindset
Where I cannot think, breathe, live, laugh or talk without the approval from some demiurge overseer.

I'm just in need for something more than you can offer
More than I can attain through 'self-love, self-growth' and self-centredness.
Not to say it's not important to love, grow and focus on one's self
But lest I be so obsessed with me that I forget others pain in the process

Not a popular opinion
But when was it ever?
When was genuinely caring for others, ever truly popular?
Without self-gain? Self-gratification? Or self-promotion?

So let me, 'talk to myself'
Let me believe in divine intervention and divine purpose
That some omnipotent being is cheering for me

You want to see someone shake up the world?
Contradict its fundamentals?
And challenge the masses with graciousness and benevolence?

Then let me take you to Eden
Let me take you Canaan, Egypt and Golgotha
Let me introduce Babylon, Persia and Assyria
Let me walk you through Israel, Rome and Asia

Let me show you selflessness, resilience and perseverance
Utter anguish, torture and pain
And Love so whole, Spirit so pure and Grace so perfect

My being crushed but tall
Smashed but unbroken
Torn limb by limb but stronger than ever

So go ahead
Psychoanalyse me
Shake me, stir me, try me and break me

For He was broken
And I am made whole
He was left in darkness
That I may be illuminated

Illuminated through Him
With Him
And In Him

So speculate, criticize and diagnose
Laugh, mock and scorn me
Judge, condemn, walk, step on and suffocate me

But when I forgive, pray and still love
Just remember one thing.
I'm not mental, I'm just a Christian.