This Day Your Life...

It happened once, a few days back, when we skipped saying grace:
I asked, “You know where that came from?” (To ease the sensed disgrace);
It comes from Moses in his speech of farewell to his friends,
As they to Promised Land set off, and he his hill ascends.

He said, “You're going to get rich, so start to say it now,
Else when you get there you will think you pulled it off somehow;
For through this desert you have come and you're your parents’ kids –
They griped, and grumbled, squabbled, sought to me and Aaron rid.

You fighters are, and tough as nails, but attitude is bad;
But it will come with time, he said, though in between is sad;
For getting rich is what the Lord had on his mind for all;
Mankind reached out to seize their cup, back there at Adam's fall.

So ever since that view of life as heaven in our land,
Has very much eluded us – we've strife we cannot stand;
So God is helping us to see we need a change of heart –
Grace at your meals – say thanks to Him – will constitute a start.

So, once again, this morning as we go to hear the news,
I do not feel our breakfast is a time to hear such views –
Of how to feather up one's nest, bring heaven to this land
Without a change of attitude – get rich by our own hand.

The line which circled round my head came from the Scripture's text –
A fellow tore his small barns down, upsized to be the best;
Then God said, “Fool, this day your soul to heaven I will take,
Who then will have your earthly goods, of them what will he make?”

So in one ditch they have some truth, as in the other ditch;
Take pot-shots each across the road, will not their two truths mix;
For attitude is everything, it covers what we see,
As we play out the truth each day, our thinking comes to be.

A balanced life is needful, both in us, and in the mix
Of people who walk hand in hand on road or in the ditch;
There is a time for life and death; a time for rich or not;
A time to gather, cast away; and share the things we've got.

Life's complex, short, not all there is, all do the best they can;
And at the end all we can say is, “Here, that's what I am”;
We get to choose, it's up to us, sometimes we goof and say,
“I think I'll take a different route, and start on it today”.

You said, O Lord, you'd come for us and take us to that home
With many mansions – cultures – rooms – lest we forever roam
Unsure just where to start to do our Apostolic tasks –
This day my soul you ask me, and for such life you ask.

Lord, let this day, for both of us be start of our new task;
Together let us walk and do the “This and That” you ask;
Each day be central core of life, that Tree of Life indeed;
Restore through us that Garden-life, and us be Heaven's seed.

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