Leftovers

Leftovers 2/4/2011

If I am silent
Then you’ll just have to guess
No sense in speaking
When all has been said
And you already know enough.

It is useless to explain
Because it would take to long
And It is useless to try and bargain
Because all the deals are done.

You can’t see the future
If you’re always looking back
But what was
Is still yet coming
Just the same as it ever was.

Take the end
And mark it backwards
Just to trace where it began
But I already know when and where
Seven years backwards
Both the beginning
And also the end.

I can’t turn back time
And I can’t change the end
At best we just postpone
But it always ends the same.

There is no honor without loss
And there is no wisdom
Without suffering
Nothing like living through life
That will either prove you
Or break you.

So what do we learn
If we are still left standing
That there are worse things
Than cold indifference
And far worse horrors
Than bruises on our pride.

It is almost certain
That your life will pass unnoticed
Unhonored and unsung
Dissolving into nothingness
And surging out to sea.

Wisdom comes in the knowing
That even the mighty must fall
And that you don’t need all the answers
If you know where to find them.

When I pledged my life
And surrendered my soul
I had no way of knowing
Just how much man could take.
And what it meant
To be alone.

I still believe
But I know that it hurts
Because it’s the only thing I’ve found
That cannot be lost
When everything else is gone.

There are things we like
And there are things we hate
But it is all just a puff of smoke
Nothing quite as useless as wasted emotion
And nothing half as foolish.

I have made my choice
And I have lived the difference
But never will I be the same
Never again to know false safety
And never again secure.

Man can take
But he will never keep
Not what belongs to God
Never ours to steal or squander
His alone to honor or bury.

I made my choice
And it wasn’t a hunch or a feeling
Nothing for which man could wager
And nothing that he could corrupt.

I know where drifting will take me
For I have taken that path before
Flowing downstream forever
To the end of stagnant waters
Where death and waste reside.

Every day I get another choice
And I get another chance
In a million small steps
Not always easy
And not without pain.

With time my heart has softened
And the doubts slowly fade
Knowing that I am worthy
To God if not by man.

It is one thing to make mistakes
And it is another to sin
But God can forgive me
But only if I make the change
And make amends.

Man listens to man
But only to get what he wants
But seldom does he listen for God
Because he doesn’t see any reason
To gamble on what cannot be seen.

I make mistakes
And I have paid the price
But God forgives the honest
And God forgives the true.

Discipline by cruelty is not strength
And money by lies is not a treasure
Love by manipulation is doomed
For a man without a conscience
Has already died
No matter what he tries to prove.

A man must live by the truth
And a man must live without deception
For better it is to die in faith
Than to live without a soul.

He who believes has life
And no man shall ever take it
An everlasting joy and purpose
Better than what he leaves behind.

If we refuse truth
Then we reject God
And therefore are lost
Already judged, condemned,
Twice dead and forgotten.

Nothing can happen for decades
But then the decades
Happen in a day
Nothing half as certain
As the end that you already know.

We could die any day
So what is there to fear
Better to laugh at useless hatred
And know what it reveals.

I have killed bigger giants
And all the lions have no teeth
Nothing to fear or dread
Save another wasted day.

Today we are alive
And God loves us still
With a home that no one can take
And a heart that cannot die.