Free to Choose Life . . . or Death

Every day we make choices that either put us on a path toward spiritual life . . . or spiritual death. The God of scripture exhorts us to choose life . . .  and therefore . . . the blessing that comes from those choices. This poem embodies that reality.

Slaves to sadness, fear, and shame,

rage, control, a tongue that slays.

Bound by darkness, imprisoned within

Christ came . . . and then broke . . . the power of sin.

~

Each day we have set before us

discord, death . . . or life

free now to choose . . . to be renewed

lay down bitterness and strife.

~

We’re called to speak in psalms, and hymns,

and spiritual songs

to orchestrate a unity

that binds my heart to yours.

Let’s make it our prayer

fruit of His Presence we’d bear

permeating everywhere with a sound of beauty.

~

So God of Glory, Maestro of me,

lead in free verse . . . flowing in the Spirit

and soak my soul with song.

Harmonize the pitch of my character with Yours.

Tap out a steady tempo of gentle generosity and joyfulness.

~

Condense kindness into a clarinet of quarter notes

that saturate like summer rain.

Pool patience and peace into a duet that beckons others

to wade into the depths of Rest that You are.

~

Let love linger long as the canticle of a soul seeded richly

with the self-governance that routes the discord of fear.

Wisk me into a waltz of faithfulness

spun into the nine-fold chord of the Spirit

that weds my essence to Yours.

~

Then . . . because the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart,

tune my tongue to the music You have written in the key of me.

Let it drift through the air as windblown seed

(the lyrics of the Spirit)

ready to find open ears which receive as fertile soil

the soothing harmony that heals

the deep places of the heart.

~

~

[The above poem is based on Deuteronomy 30:19 and Galatians 5:16-26]