To hold to love is a good thing.
To choose peace over strife keeps many from sin.
To finish a good beginning brings blessing
and to turn, confessing,
from what should not have been done
can at least prepare for something better.

To see the gray of a day without dawn
and yet move on
as if the sun were shining brightly
and birds singing on the lower branches
moves our minds away from circumstance
and more toward intentional good.

Sometimes in the harsh voice of reason
salvation is found
and many a foot is set on a darker path
by the too quick nod of selfish agreement.

We ought to take care to consider a thing
in the greater light of teaching
and insight into the nature of the Christ,
spend more time contemplating
his goodness, mercy, grace and justice,
less in the way of explaining
why it was OK for us to ignore them.

Ought not a Christian nation
be the most humble on the face of the earth?
And its citizens less eager
to gain this world’s goods
and more willing to share them?

H. Arnett
11/23/09