“The API Tried Out For John” [Reflections on Robert Law's Book, The Tests of Life - A Study Of The First Epistle Of John Edinburgh, T&T Clark, 1909, Chapter 4 and 5]

First John, Law states, has four broad themes
About what God is like – it seems
That when we plug that aspect in
Four themes in us can then begin.

It’s not that we’re not hooked up to
An API so we can’t do
Our lives on earth, we’ll use the best
Available to boost our zest.

But what John sells is God as best
For all mankind – he does not to rest
In his endeavors now he’s old –
Still making his assertions bold.

Computers use an “API”
To link up programs, so to tie
Small apps to function of the next,
With “Plug and play” accessing best –

Of class – no need to write the code –
These linkups let you ease your load
Of tying in some massive force
To your small app which brings resource –

To other users down the line,
A conduit of power sublime,
With massive functionality
Through API’s they do not see.

If John lived now, perhaps he’d choose
An API as tool to use
As metaphor to share his yarn
Of ways of God (and sound alarm).

Which is what John does in this tome –
“Plugged into God?” “All froth and foam?
Or is connection in your case
More fundamental to life’s pace?”

That is, John asks, “What’s output like?”
Does API transmit God’s might?
God’s character? The way He loves
Despite man’s ways of push and shove?

John follows wiring back to source,
Through API’s to God – of course,
If nothing’s there in output seen,
No API to God has been –

Connected in this person’s life;
Results will show when hooked up right;
The problem’s not the API,
Or God the source – he spells out why –

He says the API of choice
Is up to us – we have a voice
In how we’ll do life, where hook in –
To God? Or satan’s way of “sin”?

“Two API’s, the choice is yours”
Of God he holds up aspects four:
There’s life, and light, and righteousness,
And love which flows in blessedness.

Just like computers, APIs
To larger program often tie
A little app to do much more –
Through APIs resources pour.

So we light up with life at last;
God’s righteousness and love are cast
About our world as He shines forth;
“I’m like an app – from God’s my worth”.

Thanks Lord for this.

navigation