Lord! Let Me Live
The idea behind this poem is not original. I think everyone wonders what on earth we are doing here. I would like to know if we are the only species afflicted by this. As far as I can see my hens are perfectly content as hens. They forage, they feed, thrive. None of them seem to struggle with any kind of angst about their behaviours. They live as chickens, they die as chickens untroubled by their chicken state.
Here, on the other hand, the local Church fusses away at a dwindling congregation that is never good enough (it would seem) for the divine pattern into which they are stitched. Well why aren’t they good enough? Who made them? They are baited by mistranslations. Be perfect, even as your father in heaven is perfect? (Mathew 5:48 NIV)
What a devil lies in that word perfect. Used by advertisers everywhere to menace our state of happiness . What is this WordPerfect state of detention that blights us?
The most accurate translation of this word Perfect in Mathew is authentic. Be authentic even as your Father in heaven is authentic.
Quite a difference. So then what is your authentic state? If my authentic state is to lie, cheat and grab - is that ok? Make my way to the top of the pecking order and crack on? Where is the need to change? Could we not live our lives untroubled by knowledge of a divine power. Just be.
Its a bind and I don’t see any other creature in nature suffering from it. They hunt, slaughter, cheat and maim without any pricking of conscience. Any social cohesion they have is purely to survive. Why are we in a fallen world and they are not?
It’s an old question and I have used an old format to frame it: the Shakespearian sonnet form. The beats in the line don’t quite conform though as, frankly, neither do I.
Lord! Let me live.
Sometimes I, when drawn to prayer, a habit
coming when pausing or near to sleep,
Lord, I say, change my heart for good, give it
Grace. Your world is not mine to judge or keep
And still, I question. God, could you not have
Made us all good from Your ghastly Get-Go?
Given us a true path to sweetness? Paved
Our ways with kindness, make us now let go
Our anger, toxic rages and our revenges?
Here we are shrivelled by our riches
While all nature thrives. Must we alone change
Our given blindness to Your signal wishes?
See! In this breathing world, the hunting wolf,
Joins the keen hare’s prayers. Lord Let Me Live!