When I first began to try my hand at poetry, I practiced by writing poems based on random ideas from my friends. Because of school and work, I haven’t been able to write such a poem in a long time. Today, however, my friend Dustin challenged me to write a spin-off poem of sorts, using the “rebel” idea from the last poem and placing it within the context of Star Wars. I had the time, so I accepted the challenge. I hope you like it!
Poetry
Count It All Joy
Oh how quickly we abandon
Our morality and will
When, to our complete confusion,
Circumstances strike us ill.
Ill-advised is our rebellion,
Yet the rebel’s part we play:
From disciple into hellion
When the storm invades the day.
Can we not remember glory,
That our Lord has won the fight?
Do we yet forget the story?
Light has broken through the night!
Suffering is light and fleeting
When compared to Christ above.
No bereavement, bane, or beating
Breaks the grip of God’s great love.
Persecution serves to purge us.
Suffering now sanctifies.
We are bought by Christ’s own purchase,
Seeing now with open eyes.
Therefore, we count joy our sorrow,
Singing praise in deepest pain.
Should we face our death tomorrow,
Even this is wond’rous gain.
Upon the Sea
My life is not what I had thought ‘twould be
When I thought future thoughts in yesteryear.
I saw as if upon a serene sea,
And set the sail with very little fear.
In hope, I left to follow heaven’s Way,
Believing that the path I saw was set;
But storms of life began to cloud the day
Until the plan I knew I did forget.
So have I learned to let the rudder keep
Within the hand of One who knows the course:
The Savior and the Shepherd of the sheep,
He is the destination and the source.
I need not fear though faced with darkest night.
By grace I sail by faith and not by sight.
Unshakeable
The war is won, for one we are
With One who wore the whip and thorn.
He condescended from afar,
For Father’s glory being born.
Into a world that was His own,
For He created and sustains,
He came to claim His rightful throne
For He, in love and justice, reigns.
His own, however, knew him not,
Nor understood His holy name,
Devising their devilish plot
To stifle their salvation’s flame.
But God almighty reigns above
The wicked plans of wicked men.
He brought the victory of love
To light through mankind’s darkest sin.
The depth of man’s depravity
Was part of heaven’s perfect plan.
Infinity in brevity
Confounded ev’ry mind of man.
So do not think that God most high
Could ever fall to circumstance.
Your hope and help can never die,
So trust the Truth and dare to dance.
Conform Me
Let me learn to love your voice.
Help me look to things above.
Save me from the selfish choice.
Show me how to walk in love.
Lead me in the way of truth.
Break me from the idol’s hold.
Keep me from the lusts of youth.
Make me, for your kingdom, bold.
Help me keep my vision clear.
Make me humble, meek, and pure.
Help me know that you are near.
Let me, for your name, endure.
Make me always quick to give.
Let me ever testify.
Teach me how to truly live.
Teach me how to truly die.
The Dead
The day is overcast
I see in skies ahead
The birds and copters flying fast
My heart is filled with dread
The city lies below
From there not few have fled
For therein winds of death do blow
And therein walk the dead
Awake but not alive
Consumed to flesh and bone
The corpses feed to just survive
Together and alone
Detached from what is life
A hunger overgrown
With tragedy their days are rife
Their hearts as good as stone
And such were some of you
But you have been redeemed
The promised cure has proven true
Beyond what man has dreamed
The sleepers now awake
The lifeless voices screamed
And war ensues to fin’lly break
The end the cursed one schemed
Redemption
Heading not his illocution
We have earned our execution
Guilty ‘fore the Father
Ev’ry son and daughter
But the Son, in God’s solution
Bore the curse of sin’s pollution
Breaking through the pother
Found the slave and bought her
Now the veil is torn asunder
Nevermore can Satan plunder
“Righteous,” now the heading
Freed is she from fretting
Heaven’s call in holy thunder
Fills her soul with fear and wonder
Bride adorned for wedding
Perfect love, the setting
The Journey
“Further up and further in”
Thus our wand’ring feet must go
Answer “Yes” or answer “No”
Let the journey now begin
Enter now this holy bond
Heaven’s Son lifts up your face
Faultless ‘fore the throne of grace
Father calls and we respond
Whether by our sprint or schlep
We must mount the heights today
There is help along the way
Do not lose your heart or step
Trust the holy Trinity
Evermore in him abide
He will never leave your side
God has won the victory
Return
Wake the slumb’ring soul within this man
I have wandered far from my first love
Living by my world-influenced plan
I have lost my eyes for things above
Not that God’s salvation was in vain
Nor have I been stolen from his hand
My old flesh, however, doth remain
Warring ‘gainst the grace in which I stand
I, like Paul, do feel the fight inside
Flesh and spirit trading blows within
Though my Lord now calls me to abide
I bypass escape to fall to sin
No more
Resuscitate me from this momentary lapse of consciousness
I long to leave these lesser things and live in hope and holiness
My eyes have seen the glory of the risen, reigning, coming King
So let my feeble breath be brought before you as an offering
Set my eyes on things above
Bring me back to my first love
Jesus
Laying down to make atonement
Rising up to his enthronement
Humble condescension
Glorious ascension
God in flesh in place of sinner
Holy, sacrificial dinner
Blood and body broken
Word of God now spoken
Cross of wood for man’s salvation
Gift of God: propitiation
Work of Christ completed
Curse of sin deleted
Christ the fount of life eternal
Author of the church fraternal
God of highest glory
Hero of the story
as i learn to walk 