How Shall We Now Live, 1: Lift Him Up and They Will Come (poem)
How Shall We Now Live, 3: Knowing Our Season
Phyllis Beveridge Nissila
And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell (Joshua 24:15)
But you’re going to have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re going to have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re going to have to serve somebody (Bob Dylan, “You Gotta Serve Somebody,” Slow Train Coming, 1979. listen below*)See also Matthew 24:3-31
Choose This Day
Dark to dark or light to light
Which do you prefer?
Trouble alley or pearly gates
Which is the allure?
You might be a Boomer
Or a Generation X
Maybe a Millenial
Or a “Z” that’s comin’ up next
But you better choose this day
The path you’ll go along
And I would not delay because
The choice may soon be gone.
Is hate to hate or love to love
The place in which you roam?
Is it Eden lost or paradise found
The place that you’ll call home?
Is it a prison of pain you’re lookin’ for
Or a place of eternal rest?
Well now’s the time to make up your mind
Which one will suit you best?
But you better choose this day
The path you’ll go along
And I would not delay because
The choice may soon be gone.
Is it Hell or is it Heaven
At the end of your days?
Do you follow that old liar
Or the Life the Truth and Way?
Have you had enough of rage
Of fear, deception, and blues?
Or is it time to open your ears
And hear some better news?
But you better choose this day
The path you’ll go along
And I would not delay because
The choice may soon be gone.
Have you had yourself enough
Of arguments and strife?
Have you had yourself enough
Of raging in the night?
Do you pray for something else
To truly set you free?
How about the sacrifice
Of the Man from Galilee?
But you better choose this day
The path you’ll go along
And I would not delay because
The choice may soon be gone.
You might think you’re holy now
Sittin’ in that pew
You might think you have arrived
In your BM double-U
You might think your headed to Heav’n
On someone else’s dime
But it’s you alone who makes the choice
If you still have some time
But you better choose this day
The path you’ll go along
And I would not delay because–
The choice may soon be gone.
And I would not delay because
The choice may soon be gone.
~~~~~
*What he sang:
