About This Blog

These are mostly original poems by me (John Eells).  I am a house painter, family man, and servant of the good Lord Jesus Christ.  My family resides beneath the glorious ruin of a giant oak in the beautiful city of Greenville, South Carolina.  I like to edit and revise, play foosball, eat chips and salsa, and renovate my home (we live in a “mill village” neighborhood built in the 1940s).

I write for joy and to grasp the reality of a life worth the fight.  When I write, I experience God’s goodness and am reminded that everything is a gift.  The title, If You Long For Home… is meant to reflect my eternal perspective as well as my curiosity about the way human desires inform and empower decision making in this life.  I hope you will enjoy these and visit again.

Oh yeah, I’m also interested in the subject of violence.  I believe there is such a thing as good violence (or a violence of hope) and I’m trying to more fully understand what that means for the way I live my life as an “agent” of reconciliation.  Surely there is a violence (not brutality, but something more subtle and paradoxical) that leads to peace.  Christ cried out from the cross for God to forgive the ones who had brutalized him saying, “they know not what they do” (The Gospel of Luke: 23.34).  Then God poured all the violence of his wrath against sin onto his Son. God knew exactly what he was doing, and he did it because of his great love! I hope you will check out my multi-part essay, A Virtuous Violence, and respond.

CLICKHERE to read the “signature” poem of my blog.