Death, Have You Forgotten?

Dear Death,
The more I sit and think

Upon the waste that you have laid;

The more I see the devastation

Wrecked among my people;

The more I have to combat

Thoughts and imaginations set

To destroy peace,

The more tears flow

A seething anger birthed in coals.

How dare you keep spewing your poison?

How long do your words whisper in ears,

Speaking - meant to deceive

Feeding the itching entertainment of the mind,

Bringing the countenance of the young into despair?

How long must you drive the attention of our souls,

Masking our remembrance of the One who created us?

How long will your bitter words grow dead things

By which the fruit remains in the grave?

How many of my children must fall prey?

Tears wretched as Jack Daniels, Mary Janes, Crystal M and Rx

Sit at the table pouring into their psyche, as they hope

The emptiness they feel will be drowned in a moment.

Bruises hidden, imprints of fists and ears wracked

As yelling is a form of communication and control.

The late hours become a playground, as they are forgotten

By the ones who birthed them. Innocence has been removed

In the most intimate of ways.

Girls are missing without a trace…

No trail publicly used to hunt the perpetrators. 

As dusk draws nigh, futility tempts the end to become a friend.

Death, how long will you forget

Two-thousand years ago

You were already declared dead?

Your power was ripped from your hands!

And yet, your broken chains still hold

Bound the people meant to be free!
But by one word, you are rebuked. 

By one word, the threat of your grasp cut.

By one word, you are defeated.

And that one word is a name.

And the name is JESUS.

Dear Jesus,

We need You. 

 Sometimes I lose the words to pray,

So hear the utterings of my groanings.

There is a pain that has persisted

Across generations.  The time has come,
We ask for it to stop. 

I ask for addictions to become suffocated;

I ask for abuse to be swallowed;

I ask for suicide to hang itself. 

But what is there to fill our souls,

If we do not have You?  O God,

Breathe in us Your everlasting life.

Remind us that our traditions

Fail to save.  Philosophy not built

On the foundation of Christ

Will crumble.  Deliver us

From the darkness that entangles.

Forgive us the idols we carry.

Jesus, I ask that You would become

The desire of our hearts. Holy Spirit

Stir a yearning, by which the Living Water

Quenches the hunger we bear.

A new creation, Christ in us

The hope of Glory.  Old things have gone,

Make this nation new!  Heal my people.

Bring Your salvation to persistent curses,

So that our future may be blessed.

 Lastly, Daddy, for my children:

Be the secure arms that hold them in love

Speak to them gently, and yet firmly affirm

The Truth of who You are and what You have done.

My heart aches, and I wish the sting would be no more.

They are not alone, and I ask that You remind them.

Cradle them, and yet, I ask that You would be

The craving of their souls, rooted and established

Abounding in the Life that You ransomed for them.

Death, be no more.

Have you forgotten

Two thousand years ago,

You were declared dead?

In Jesus, you have been rebuked.

In Jesus, the threat of your grasp has been cut.

In Jesus, you have been defeated.

JESUS REIGNS IN THIS PLACE!!

Your power was ripped from your hands!

Your chains broken will no longer bound those freed!