The Commuted Life

The commuted life

We will just carry on this way

Twisting and turning down roads of dismay

Aghast to some degree

Flummoxed and all at sea

Bouncing our conclusions off hearing ears

All pierced-through with inconsistency and tears

All amiss – we still insist

That we are right – but don’t know what to do

 

Run and hide in ‘ordinary life’

Daily rituals – things we must address

Keep focused on survival to avoid the mess

 

A Philosopher comes to address our mind

A Doctor our physical frame

An alternative practitioner does the same

A policeman says: ‘Get in line’

A psychiatrist  says: ‘You will be fine’

A football manager gives his reason

A soccer star injured and out for the season

 

‘Life’ – they call it

As we all commute

Not enough hours in the day – to waste

Hobbies – (a horrible word) – to indulge

We hear of friends the newspapers have disgraced

Increase in suicide – brains emaciated – 

Normality lost or misplaced

 

There’s that man on the street corner again

Preaching a message with a fervent face

‘Christ is the answer’ he was heard to say

But his message is lost as it’s done in the old-fashioned way

The communist shouts:

“Communism can put a new suit on this man!” –

pointing to the vagrant on the street – with his hand

The preacher responds:

“Christ can put a new man in the suit!”

 

That’s today’s interruption over –

as you make your way

Past the small crowd on display

The street corner preach follows you to the train

Until you open your lap-top once again

Best to see the Stockmarket score

Best to forget and ignore

anything to do with challenge and change

I will return home and re-arrange

The furniture – it’s due a move

I see my goal as a decorator – to DIY improve

Then lie back and lounge after my weekend work

Dosing and day-dreaming I awake with a jerk

Night sleep ruined – you toss and turn

Catch the train again the next day

Slumber and train-sleep but never pray

Bullies fallen

BULLIES FALLEN

You’ve seen it –

up through the years

In different scenarios – in different spheres

Starting at school – in the playground

At the milk break

 

Afterwards as school bags are tossed around

Teenage cheek – putting others down

No thought for feelings received

In Bullish-idioms claiming to be ‘the man’

Tarnishing reputations on demand

 

You’ve saw it for yourself as you have observed

“Who asked you anyway…?” they say

Dishing out commands

 

In the present company – jostling for position

The bully – bull-nosed and bulldozed…

Stamps his personality upon the crowd

All know and step away – none step-up to stand-up

 

But here is a young lad called David ready to at least try

He throws his stone and it lodges near the eye

The bully falls and the immediate ground doth-tremble

David beheads – the giant demonic-assailant

And cries: ‘To God be the glory – not I!’

ON BOARD

ON BOARD

Hello! – Hello!

Anybody out there?

Can anybody hear me?

So goes the cry to the…?

 

Those who heard – did not heed

Those who didn’t hear could not know

‘What’s this about?’ asked the curious

Others laughed

 

Like rising steam on a mirage day

In sight – outa sight

Tremors of sound

As the words go forth

 

They will be received

And rejected

“Get on board little children

Get on board”

 

Some will leave

in the twinkling of an eye

So said Ken…

SO SAID KEN…

That person – you know the one…

The one you passed-by en route to another place

You caught their name

Especially their first –

Such inventive parents to have named them so

 

Is this only in America – ?

Is it the only place where the titles are replete

With such wonderfully-concocted variations?

Not just a Bill or a Sam or a Jill or a Tom

 

Press any subject and go search online

Find the credits descending your screen

And see the names in-between

Great names with a spring in their step

 

To name a child – they may thank you later

But they may not

And revert to some foreshortening by choice

 

So said Kenneth?

Never –

So said Ken…

What will become of us…?

What will become of us…?

They’re on the move

From the romantic hitchhike to the bus terminus

They’re on the move – dodging the traffic

to cross the busy thoroughfare

They’re on the move with rush-hour sidesteps

and train doors closing

 

Strangers in the day and the semi-night

Eye meets eye from time to time

And turning away it wonders why…

 

Some long to engage their speaking faculty

Others speak when not spoken to

It takes a lot

But some – come to that place

Where they will make their complaint

embarrassingly

 

Some see it their duty to give that word of direction

Some fight to do so with interruption and

A fuller explanation

to the lost or stranded holiday-maker

Making their holiday difficult for themselves

 

But now crowds on-hold staying at home

Only a memory – remembered

now a frantic search:

‘What will become of us?’

Jobs gone – future put on-hold

‘What will become of us’ –

as they ease down into the sofa again

Flick through the phone

Flick through the channels

Rising and falling in human mood-swings

Trying to stop time

But it won’t stand still

The inner-life withdraws

To the catacombs of self

Purpose found in identity’s home

No more activity in outward display

No more making money

Identity slipping away

Ugly reprise

Ugly reprise

And the cacophony of generations

Whisper softly or shout aloud

Conflicting opinions around the world resound

 

No one seeks the hidden wisdom

Too busy making their sound

Whilst others in a daze remain

Corrupting any speech – thought too plane

 

Feel the pulse of generations gone

Feel the pulse of generations carrying on

Listen to the drumbeat of causes gone

Addressing and using the crowd as their pawn

 

Much ado… – and further still

Making their point with terrible chill

That penetrates the bones with ill-will

“Take my point or die you pig-swill!”

 

So they say, so I’ve heard

So I see on the screens

Screaming – out

blasphemies and attempts at a coup

Nothing stands still – it’s all about you

 

Squirming masses up in arms

All causes together causing alarms

Sick people from head to toe

Fighting in crime and won’t let go

No compromise or peaceful rapport

“Outa my way” pushed to the floor

 

Can’t listen – won’t be told

Can but feed the nature below

With all kinds of schemes

And dastardly deeds in tow

 

Big sway now as the crowd takes an advance

It’s do or die – no time for ‘romance’

It’s crush or be crushed

All authority to oppose

Ways of peace – are thought comatose

 

And behind every country there hides

A principality of lies

Resurgence of trouble thought normal

– No surprise

When all will not listen and do not get

Blocking their ears and with one accord

Rushing to exterminate

 

Political correctness all gone amiss

Straining at gnats and swallowing the abyss

Making a fuss with no difference to make

Great swelling words – most of them fake

 

Rampant irregularities too many to count

Screamed against and forgotten in copious amounts

A whole big deal made of thus and thus

While the unborn die without any fuss

Been Everywhere 😎

BEEN EVERYWHERE

Of course there is always the alternative route

Don’t go – climb the stairs and go to bed

That’s the journey you can easily make

Too much trouble getting all worked up:

 

Bookings, and credit cards and online stuff

and packing and hairdressing and pets put in store

 

You didn’t want a holiday anyway – that’s for sure

Different climate to attack your skin

Street sellers hassling you ’til you give-in

 

Walking for miles – your poor sore feet

Different receptionists you have to greet

 

Restaurants to negotiate in another tongue

Waiting with unserved others

that you sit among

 

Why sightsee? – there’s always online videos

Sit with your feet up and a packet of Cheerios

 

Take it all in – from the comfort of your armchair

And afterwards boast of the fact

– ‘you have been everywhere’

The inevitable lady

THE INEVITABLE LADY

The inevitable lady sitting at the desk

Why do you look so bored?

 

With ancient implement called pencil

Idly doodling on your sheet

You give a glance and improvise a smile

 

I look around

Around and around and up and down I go again

But don’t get myself in a twist

Panning in – panning out

I observe scrutinise and zoom in

 

The artists – four in all

Display their wares

 

I’ve seen it all – before

Wait – never saw that before

 

At the end – I glance at the inevitable lady

No longer lifting her head

No forcing of a smile

 

But I catch a glimpse

Of her masterful piece of 

Doodling that I would like to buy

Listen

LISTEN

You can’t hear me

By hear I mean receive communication

 

You can’t hear me

If by hear I mean understand

You can’t hear me 

If by hear I mean the need of hearing aids

You can’t hear me

If by hear I mean don’t ignore

You can’t hear me

If by hear I mean take on board and explore

 

As one shouts over another

As many shout in violence 

As people’s views are world’s apart

As peace departs from their speech

 

We screw up our eyes

And with furrowed brow

We turn from the screech of madness

 

No one wants to listen

Really listen

Trade-in Exchange

TRADE-IN EXCHANGE

There are many people who cannot see themselves being at all religious.

It just doesn’t ‘float their boat’.

They have a mental concept of what being religious means, and it just doesn’t appeal.

They haven’t taken the time to find out what true, pure religion is.

James 1:27

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

James tells us (as above) what true, pure religion is.

But this is one verse in the bible – we must incorporate all of scripture in any conclusions we come to – on a given subject. That’s why we must search and study it.

A short post in a blog is unable to do this.

Religion is not a favourite word of mine, as it can mean all kinds of things that has nothing to do with the true meaning.

But true Christianity begins with a trade-in experience.

We exchange our life for – Christ’s Living tangible Presence, – that we experience when He comes to dwell in us.

John 14

17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

God is a Spirit and He is omnipresent. He is everywhere. But He is not with or in everyone  in a relationship sense.

He must be invited into your life and mine if such a relationship is to start and continue.

He must be invited in.

Those who have invited Him in – in the Person of The Lord Jesus Christ – now must live their life by inviting Him also into every part of their thinking, and invite Him into their circumstances good or bad.

Our part of the deal is to trade-in our selfish, sinful nature and ask Him into our lives to live His divine nature in us.

This calls for a giving-up and a giving-in.

Prayer is where the transaction takes place.

Talk to God. Invite Him in. Ask Him to take the nature that causes all your pain, and replace it with Himself.

Acts 3

19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 20 and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before,…