Tag Archives: Mercy

How Far Home?

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He wanders, lost in waking dreams,

The frozen ground grown concrete hard

Beneath his steady heartbeat tread.

At last he sees the place he knew –

There grew the man he has become –

But tossed upon the tides of time,

Neither it nor he are the same.

Recall the warmth of summer’s night,

Bedecked by flickered fires’ flames.

Remember now the gold-drenched dawn,

When morning’s light whispered your name

And bade you rise and play again,

Just as you did the day before.

And what is more, those faces see,

Those hearts that loved you then so well.

Is all now lost in memory?

A dull, long-dead, once-living scene?

Or does this dream bid you anew,

To look beyond what now is gone,

To that to come which cannot die,

Held fast in Him Who cannot lose?

How heavy is the joyous weight,

The glory that awaits you then!

Your home does not behind you lie,

But ahead.

On What Constitutes “Extreme”

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I, along with many other pro-life advocates, was overjoyed to hear of the new law in the state of Texas that will effectually reduce the number of abortions in the state tremendously. Likewise, I was not exactly shocked to hear that the president, along with many others of his ilk, have recoiled at the decision. Mr. Biden even went so far as to call the new law “extreme”. This adjective used to modify a law that should have been enacted decades ago is misapplied. If I were to spend all of my time correcting the serpentine rhetoric that oozes out of Washington day after day, I would never leave my desk. But, the president’s use of “extreme” has, in the parlance of a bygone era, stuck in my craw. In response, I would like to give just a few contemporary examples that are correctly modified with the word “extreme”.

It is extreme that in America one in five pregnancies that don’t end in miscarriage are aborted. It is an extreme absurdity that we have laws that protect people who are destroying a fifth of our future population. It is an extreme mark against the so-called progressive left that they support a system that makes legal the fact that thousands more black babies are aborted in New York City than are born.

It is an extreme measure that instead of waiting until all of our countrymen and allies had made it safely out of Afghanistan, our president decided to stand by an arbitrary date of exit. It is an extreme dishonor that those who have lived under the freedom our fighting men brought to their country – including minorities like my Christian brothers and sisters – have been left to the merciless madness of the Taliban by feckless politicians, most of whom did nothing to free them in the first place.

It is an extreme departure from reason that teaches our children that the world is divided into the oppressor and the oppressed, the difference being whatever those who identify as oppressed claim it to be. Is it not extreme that critical race theory would have little white boys see themselves as villains because of the color of their skin – lads who have yet to grow their first chest hair are saddled with hundreds of years of guilt they did nothing to accumulate, and God-willing, will do nothing to perpetuate? This same extreme theory would teach young black men and women that the difficulties in their lives have nothing to do with their own choices, and thus there is nothing they can do about them; instead of encouraging them to be the upright men and women they can and should be, CRT teaches them that no matter how high they rise, they will always be victims of “systemic racism”.

It is an extreme disappointment that a free nation would allow itself to be bullied into silence by people who can’t tell the difference between a man and a woman. It is an extreme incongruity with most of our storied past that in our day to teach your son to be a chivalrous gentleman and your daughter to be a noble lady is seen by many as “abusive” and “toxic”; instead, we should leave their moral education to whom? the state? May it never be!

No, Mr. Biden, there are many things in our benighted nation that might accurately be modified by the word extreme, but a law passed to save the lives of beautiful babies made in the image of God their Creator – that is not extreme. Perhaps, the words you were looking for were “right”, “decent”, and “just”?

Lucernarium

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In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:4-5

We gather all to meet the night,

And sing of Christ Who bore our sin;

With warm hearts we, in lantern’s light,

Amongst our blood-bought baptized kin,

Now hear our Father’s Word anew,

And are invited in to pray.

We stand beneath the fading hue,

Awaiting here the longed-for Day –

That morn which marks the darkness’ end!

O come, our King, make sorrow flee,

And comfort us, our Dearest Friend!

Until Your Dawn our own eyes see,

Let us endure this night in Thee.

Let us endure this night in Thee.

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The title of this poem, “Lucernarium”, is essentially an old word for Vespers, the evening office when the lamps were lighted and the brothers gathered to pray and hear God’s Word. The inspiration for this poem is a wonderful lady who has just gone to be with the Lord. My dear sister Bertha was a great encouragement to me, and I wish I had been able to know her longer; she loved poetry – a favorite topic of conversation between us – but much more, she loved her Lord. I spoke to her a couple of days before she died, and she told me that she was looking forward to stepping out of the night and into God’s glorious morning. I praise the Lord for her faith and witness!