Shoot to Kill

Americans like to “shoot to kill”

Excused by his touted constitution bill

It’s a market ploy

It’s even a children’s toy

Man is a killer by natural birth

It’s in the blood running through the veins of the earth

Man has slaughtered his brother from the commencing

Of man’s earthen crawl from his fall—

--Into the belly of the beast--

He would kill his mother,

his brother,

his aunt,

sister,

niece

He would kill anyone who stands in his way

Animals kill his prey to eat another day.

But it is man who kills for sport, amusement, entertainment, as a hobby,

Exhibition, tradition…

To show off his prowess, skill, daring, his ability to bring down the lion,

And the “uns“--  

Un-like un-alike un-related un-connected un-traditional

Different, divergent--

The people who are the other ones

He has an inherent trait to shoot down without a sense of shame

To take the life of any form of living thing

He takes pride in his aim

Reveling in the glory and the gory

No shame

He sups at the table of his making

He feasts on the bowels of hating

He basks in his fame when he splatters his target splayed upon the ground

Bringing

him

down…

Cause it’s a game

It’s like a stealth, a deviousness

Embedded in the game of life, and death

He kills…

For wealth, for gain, for profit, for payback, 

for expansion of his territory,

To increase his net,

To “get”

He kills…

                In folly, glee, recklessness, mad-ness, and mirth

He kills,

Exterminates, eradicates, assassinates, annihilates, 

massacres, slaughters, murders…

For recognition sake -

To make his name known

He kills…

To prove his worth

Yet, he destroys all that is holy…

His very home

Every life he takes

Buries, entombs him further and deeper into the crevices of darkness and disdain

He’s blinded to the pain

He cannot see

Through his arrogance, his self-importance and ignorance

He cannot put his ego aside

Because it is enmeshed in a warped sense of mis-placed pride

He cannot arm himself with the secret weapons of unconditional love -

The very heart of God

Who has sent the sign of the dove

Who has declared… as it is written,

“Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

He cannot see me from you

Nevertheless…

“There a River of life that flows through the lives of everyone… 

Yes it do.”**

“There is a river whose streams make glad the City of God,

The Holy Place (The Tabernacle) where the Most High dwells,

God is within her (in the midst of her), she will not fall (she will not be moved);

God will help her at break of day (at the dawn).

Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;

He lifts His voice, the earth melts.

The Lord Almighty is with us;

The God of Jacob is our Fortress, our Stronghold, our Refuge, 

our Hope, our Tower of Strength.  

Selah (pause and give thought to this).”  Psalm 46:4-7

“Be still, and know that I Am God. 

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth.” 46-10

**Excerpted from Roberta Flack’s track, “River.”

(October 8th - Sitting out in the sunlight)
The seed that I plant in the earth beneath my feet -
this earth that breathes by the radiance of God's sunlight beaming overhead -
to bless us with warmth and light and brilliance -
that energies our being -
that gives life to all life.
We praise You our Lord, our God, our Father
Who art in heaven, hallow be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom come.
Come Lord, to those of us who are being prepared
from the foundation of the earth to be sons of light -
to be Your loving glory  - Your namesake.
We bow down before You at this hour of the day
setting in the eve of the age.
We ask Your blessings of renewed hope.
We ask You, Father, to forgive our trespasses as we forgive those
who have trespassed against us.
Let us not carry into the night any slight,
any of the causes for our falling away from the path You have set before us.
Help us to be Your own begotten sons of the dawn.
Amen