evolution of a man

When I was little the news spoke derogatorily about war lords.
I asked my mom.
"Mom, what's a war lord?"
"It's someone you pay to protect you," she responded.
"What's so bad about that, we pay police"
"They'll shoot you if you don't pay"
Later I would then pay taxes or go to jail.

When I was young I read the bible;
I asked my mother.
"Mom, why don't we sacrifice animals?"
"It's what they did long ago," she responded.
"But the bible says that we should sacrifice."
"We just don't."

When I was young I read more of the bible.
I asked my father
"Dad, what's cirr-cuum-cis-ion?"
"Well you see ... "
I stopped reading the bible.
I wanted to be good in my parents' eyes and the more I read the less holy it sounded.

When I was a little older I was in Sunday school.
I was told that reading the bible would strengthen my faith.
I asked "How is that, reading about animal sacrifice?"
It was suggested that I read a specific book of the bible,
read a chapter a day 31 chapters in all.
I was told my teacher did it.
I couldn't understand why he decided to read only one chapter a day, deciding to stop before he starts.

When I was a little older I was in Sunday school.
I was told that evolution was a lie.
I brought up how we observe life changes.
I was told that that was micro-evolution not macro.
I mentioned how our family dachshund was bred from a wolf.
They said that that was man-made and not natural.

Before I left my parent's house,
I tried an experiment.
I stopped praying, for two weeks.
I realigned my mind, restructured my thoughts,
addressed my thoughts to me not to Him.
I never prayed again.

When I was in college,
I went to a service.
The people were strange and nice.
We read Revelations, and we were told be hot or cold for the Lord, not luke warm.
I didn't want to be hot and I was told not to be warm.
So, that meant that I should be cold.

Later, I had to restructure my thoughts.
Figure out what life meant to me.
Figure out what I was going to live for.
I had to realign my complete world view.
I found plenty of good things around me.
Things I could see, touch, taste, and read.

Then I heard a man argue that warlords should serve as police.
He made more sense than my mom.