My crooked heart (and yours)

As some of you know, I really dislike most witty sayings posted on church sign boards. I tend to think that long and deep Scriptural truths get sacrificed for the sake of an acrostic, a rhyme or an attempted pun, sometimes so much so that the result is pretty much a lie.

And I even wonder about verbatim Bible quotes plucked out of their context and what might be miscommunicated that way (though I am LESS uncomfortable with that).

Yesterday I was driving by St. Michael's -- and I KNOW they were very happy to get this sign and embark on this means of outreach -- and let me say that their sayings are often less cheesey than those on Victoria Ave. Faint praise. Sorry.

However, yesterday when I read the sign I began to tear up -- not a good idea while driving.

"You shall love your crooked neighbour with all your crooked heart."

Despite that being an alteration to a verbatim Bible verse, it struck my (crooked) heart as TRUE and restorative -- maybe more true (in terms of communicating something closer to the "whole counsel of God" on the subject) than a verbatim quote of the original.

It's from WH Auden's "As I Walked Out One Evening" (1937).