Mark Stucky Poet Free verse

Notes About The Poem

Salvation in an App Store

Salvation in an App Store?

By Mark D. Stucky
Google Maps won’t work
for the way I feel lost.
Is there a salvation app
I can install on my phone
to download redemption today
and upload my soul when I die?

Since there are apps
for everything in life,
why not also an app
to access the afterlife?
Is there a spiritual map to the Pearly Gates in Heaven
that also includes a free ticket for effortless admission?

Can an app act as replacement
for tear-permeated repentance?
Can I install a cheap-grace app
without costly discipleship?
I don’t want to pick up a cross and follow Jesus.
I just want to pick up my phone and stream salvation.

I want Jesus joyous in my app.
I don’t want him hungry and thirsty.
I don’t want him sick and in prison.
I don’t want him naked and a stranger.
I don’t want hillside sermons on social justice.
I just want smiling faces and shining crosses.

I haven’t found salvation
in any app store so far.
If you find that elusive app,
will you please send me the link?


(First published in Soul-Lit, Summer 2023. See also my poems “Missing: God Incarnate,” “The Ascension (with Rewrites),” and “God’s on Mute.”)

(The image is a collage created by the author from multiple images.)

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Hilda Greenhough October 14, 2023 at 7:58 AM This poem is very APPropos. Gps has changed my life, but I need to carry a few paper maps just in case. Thanks for a great poem

Susan Mills October 9, 2023 at 3:30 AM Your poems have a religious theme. Keep up the good work because you're going places. What the bible means is Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. Thank you!

Timothy Ray October 4, 2023 at 11:41 PM i have been reading a lot of Sufi devotional poetry and herein i hear that voice rising above the morass of existence....it is always a pleasure to hear from the seekers...ascending voices are no doubt a delight to the audience behind the gates....your path is ennobling