Home – By Another Way

Three reasons for detour emerge in my mind
When homeward I'm heading to my kith and kind:
The first is because road is closed I can see,
And waiting around is not option for me.

The second's because I've been told – dream or hunch –
That proceeding onward's a great way to lunch;
Except that when asking without great to-do,
I find out the dinner they're serving is Stu.

The third is because I got a glimpse of locale,
And see that my road doesn't go there, no-how;
So making a change now's a wise move to make,
And ever so quickly a new road I take.

The Bible is full of its journeying guys,
Who, like the above, see a road-change as wise
Like Joseph whose capture and sale as a slave
Closed roads home to family – saw brothers as knaves.

The wise men with Jesus were warned in a dream
To head for the hills – Herod not what he seemed.
The prodigal son in his pigpen with slop
Found attitude change made the new road he got.

At this time or that, for each reason I've switched,
But reasoning-three put me here ’cause of it:
I saw that continuing on that same road
Would not take me homeward, despite easy load.

So I made a choice and set out on a quest,
To find missing pieces the church-folk had missed;
They thought I was nuts, (maybe true, come to think)
But I'm glad I've walked far away from that brink.

I’ve watched UC churches go into a dive,
Then scramble around for a way to survive;
Some teachable-ness comes when famine persists,
Then “off to find Joseph’s” at top of the list.

The problem's they think I'm still prodigal now,
Because I'm not walking with them at the brow
Of precipice deep, where they teeter to doom,
“Against us you are if you're not in our room ”.

Our roads they divided like Frost's – seventy-eight –
They carried on forward, I left through the gate;
They viewed me as traitor to all they held dear,
Not seeing the issue which caused me to veer.

It cost me a bundle to find missing piece;
But man, it feels good now to have this release.
So simple it is once it's seen, clear as day,
(Effect is quite swift thus avoiding doomsday).

In ‘Stages of Change’, pre-awareness their place;
“No problem we have” (’spite the crisis they face).
Like drunks when no problem is seen by them so
They're last seeing clearly what others all know.

If six years it takes clergy-folk to catch on,
How long for the lay-folk to shift road that's wrong? –
“About twenty minutes”, my friend quipped one day –
“With naught to unlearn, they quick go home new way”.

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