Mortal creatures we are,
Some say a curse given,
Others a joy?
For we are free
What is found in life?
Suffering-sadness-toiling-choices,
Need I say more?
All these are masked with uncertainty.
For, are we certain we will be free,
Certain that we will laugh?
Certain that we shall reap?
Certain of a good choice?
The price of life is not death,
Rather it is living--experiencing
To wake each day, carrying a baggage
To sleep each night, suspending the burden
I am of the opinion of many who say:
"Praise God almighty, rejoice daughters and sons,
For God in his infinite mercy, love and compassion,
Has made us mortal--we will not endure forever."
"The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God,
slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,"--Exodus 34:6
This is the best possible world for our nature,
A nature empty and void, a perpetual longing
A nature scarred, traumatized, beaten, ignored
A nature which leads not to heroes, but all villains.
Each day brings it worries
Each being its anxieties,
Each person their fears
Everyone their potential to fall, to fail.
"Come to me,
all you who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest." -Matthew 11;28
What good is rest if life continues?
If children die by the thousands?
Women brutalized?
Men degraded?
What good is this GOD?
What good is following you if I fear?
Why create us knowing the outcome?
The common response--freewill--
Laughable? Truthful?
Flayed by constant happenings.
Still, you remain in control
Still, you are good.
Could not you have created a better reality?
One where we do not suffer,
One where we are one with you?
Another where we do not ever exist?
Are we mere playthings to you?
To do whatever you wilt?
Or was I taught wrong?
That destiny is in our reach.
Why are you so confusing?
Why am I enthralled?
Why do I still draw to you?
This fountain of hope and joy!
I perhaps should hold this maxim:
God is all good, all perfect
It is I who fail, It is I who do not understand,
I who react, I am in fact ignorant.
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD." -Isaiah 55:8
Fine you win, Still I cannot understand
I cannot conceptualize, I cannot grasp anything,
My reason and wisdom, are to you folly and ignorance
They have become a stumbling block unto me.
"For now we see through a glass, darkly;
but then face to face: now I know in part;
but then shall I know even as also I am known." -1 Corinthians 13:12
In this midst of it all remains my joy,
This optimism that all will be alright,
This tendency to run to you, embrace you
And as a mother comforts their son, so do you.
I seek to run, I have a tendency
I was conceived in an evil world,
An evil man I be,
But you accept me.
From you emanate all things good,
All wisdom, virtue, knowledge, understanding.
All joy, peace, longsuffering--fruits
Permit me to not have the fruits, but the tree.
This life goes thither and yon,
The storm will forever rage on,
To storm or fire this world will fall.
Either this or that: a sealed fate.
I rest in you-I try, I do.
Though life remains brutal,
It is the children who truly live it,
They are hearty, joyful, vibrant...ignorant
I too must be as they, but one distinction,
Heartiness, joy, peace cometh from you.
The sin of knowledge I must deprive,
Till I enter rest, eternally, the divine.
The price of life? Deprivation of the self and seeking daily to cleave to the only one exalted. I suppose it is a sort of dying, or death--but I disagree, for if in Christ I have found life, it means before him I was dead. The price of life is to resurrect, to experience, grow, change--a battle which never cease. Wretched and sinful I be--chief of sinners among sinners; all good traits I carry are vanity. All the vice are the same. My trust in myself? Gone. In humankind? Extinguished. I guess it is true what they say:
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name
Hebrews 11: 32-34:
"And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies."
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