What About You?

What about you?
You see the news and all the pain here on the earth.
You see that men kill men and don’t care what they’re worth.
What about you?
What about you?
You think that all the chaos is too far away.
You think you’re not in it and so it is okay.
What about you?
What about you?
The world is sick and you feel completely helpless.
The dust will settle and then you’re left with the mess.
What about you?
What about you?
If only things in your life had gone differently
You think that you and the world would be more happy.
What about you?
What about you?
You feel you’re the one getting punched in the ring.
You feel the serpent’s bite and you’re left with the sting.
What about you?
What about you?
You think that because you’re you, you deserve better,
That you’re entitled to be bound by no fetter.
What about you?
What about you?
You think you sin less, hate less, kill less than I do?
You think the way you see the world is what is true?
So what about you?
What about me?
What if you had to live in my town, my country?
What if you had been born into my family?
What about me?
What about me?
I’m on the corner of your street holding my plea.
I’m where no one can see, forgotten as can be
What about me?
What about me?
I’m in your county jail and knew no other life.
You think I don’t wish for more than all of my strife?
What about me?
What about me?
I’m across your border. I’m in “that” country.
I’m what you call the other, call the enemy.
What about me?
What about me?
You think that Jesus died for only ones like you?
You don’t think I could be of God’s chosen few?
What about me?
What about me?
You don’t think I was made in God’s image too?
You think I never could be counted in your crew?
What about me?
What about me?
Didn’t Jesus say that He came for sinners?
Is there sin for which His grace can’t be cleanser?
What about me?
What about me?
You know that Jesus said the first would become last.
He says the present is as potent as the past
In eternity.
So what about me?
I’m the voiceless, I’m the unborn, I’m the lost.
Do you think saving me is not worth the cost?
What about me?
What about me?
You think that I’m not as important as you are?
You think I’m the support role and you are the star?
What about me?
What about me?
What if what you think is right is really wrong?
What if you listened to the Spirit in this song?
What about me?
What about me?
What if I don’t even know how to repent?
How can I believe if you are never sent?
What about me?
Now what about you?
What if you don’t know what you’re entrusted with?
What if your life is really quite a wondrous gift?
What about you?
What will you do?^*

*I wrote this poem out of a desire to write something for the martyrs. After prayer, this is what came out on paper. I think that what they would want me to write is not a poem about them, but about those who they were sent to reach, and those left to be reached after they were called home. It’s really an amazing realization, a conclusion I did not intend at the beginning of this poem’s composition. This is really meant to be a song. I felt it to the rhythm of a song as I wrote it, though I publish it with no melody.

Day 27

…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8).

Do you remember the parable of the good Samaritan in Luke 10? The Samaritan, the outcast, shows the love of God to the helpless victim of roadside robbery by meeting his immediate material needs, while the teachers of the law and ministers of the temple look the other way. Helping him could compromise their work in the temple if he was unclean. Maybe instead of the temple, this man was God’s work for them. Jesus told that story because a lawyer sought to justify himself. He knew the law was about love, but seeking a loophole, he asks Jesus what the definition of a neighbor is. I’ll love my neighbor, but he’s too different so he isn’t my neighbor. Jesus taught that whoever you encounter is your neighbor. You are near one another whether it is for five minutes or five years or five decades. In that period of time, they are your neighbor. Have you ever heard the saying, “Time has no essence in the sight of the Lord?” 2 Peter 3:8 says, “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” In Matthew 5:46-48, Jesus says,

“For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Luke records the same teaching as, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36). If a = b = c, then perfection and mercy are synonymous! Mercy is not for the deserving, but for the undeserving. We have to rise above man’s expectations for our behavior and meet God’s expectations. We associate with the lowly (Romans 12:16). I don’t love as I ought, and maybe neither do you, but today is a new day and who knows who you will encounter.

If you enjoyed this material, please leave a like or comment on my blog, share, and you can purchase my book, Learning to Love: A Collection of Poetry and 40 Daily Devotions, on Amazon. Until next time, God bless.