For All These Things - Ron

We haven’t done themes on The Middlings in a while, but last month all of our posts dealt in some way with identity. Last week, Ben’s post dealt with Christ being the Way, Truth, and the Life. This post points to that same ultimate truth. 

 

For the wind and the winter of our discontent,

For the race and the runner and the dark places we went.

For the loved and the left out and for all those between,

For those stuck in victimhood who refuse to be weaned.

For a world brokenhearted lashing out and zealously reckless,

For those tearing down values while erecting numb sadness.

For the spaces where hope used to shine free and bright

For the corners and alleys where the law is called vice.

For the parents whose minds are full of decay

For the children who are stuck being raised in this day.

For the politician whose lies meet frenzied applause,

For the leaders feigning concern while sharpening claws.

For modern cities ridden with violence and crime so copious,

For the skylines that portend these nightmarish dystopias.

For the awakened left wondering where we went wrong,

For the blind who ignore truth and follow along.

For the hearts that are torn, and the families destroyed,

For the confusion that reigns in our young girls and boys.

For the vociferous crowd triggered by gender distinction,

For the evil who prosper off of gender revision.

For the trans guy or girl and the terms we make up,

For the millions of people worshipping the corrupt.

For the darkness that’s spreading, For the light that’s retreating,

For the mind-numbing stupidity and the sheep who are sleeping.

For the conservatives whose answers involve shifting the blame,

For the Christians who are simply just playing the game.

For the hoodwinked enraged and alarmed at the climate,

For the influencer spitting fear because he knows people buy it.

For the charlatan pastor specializing in scratching our ears,

For the pastor faithfully preaching though nobody hears.

For those who sit in the pew with a hardening heart,

For the millions of people falling apart.

For the teachers indoctrinating with a godless theology,

For the misguided attempting to bring about a theonomy.

For the worn out and wounded and those losing their faith,

For the ones stood against the onslaught of zealous hate.

For the racists and supremacists who divide us to conquer,

For the ones who take advantage and abuse those two monikers.

For all those held captive by a flawed judicial system,

For the few who are searching for actual wisdom.

For all who are asking, “Am I alone? Am I all right?”

For those left wondering “Am I insane? Am I alive?”

For the ones in the know about the real question:

“What does it take to stop waging war with
“All I thought I wanted,” and “All I thought I needed?”

The answer is in the Word, but it largely goes unheeded.

The truth of the matter is humanity is enslaved,

And we can’t on our own “fight the war that we made.”

 

The quotations at the end of this poem – or whatever it could be called – come from the song, “The War We Made,” by the band Red. As I finish typing this post this morning, hundreds of thousands of Israelis are experiencing real-time ramifications of this constant war. But it isn’t truly a war of Hamas, or Iran, against Israel. That’s how it is expressing itself this morning. It is the story of man’s battle against God and to overthrow His power and authority in our lives and world. The true evil behind the world is “spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).

 

But we cannot fight this war of our own making.

 

Christ has provided, and is, the means to stop the war waging in and around us. “The chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). And Isaiah 25:8 says, “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.”

 

For all this and more, Christ is the answer, as He’s always been.