Building Down and Up (poem)

(Sometimes) annual reflection. :-)

Building Down and Up
(poem by Nathan Ludwick; copyright 6/1/2015)
(Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, Habakkuk 1:5, Psalms 127, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Colossians 3:1-4, Galatians 2:20, John 12:20-26, Luke 6:46-49, Hebrews 13:12-16, Philippians 3:7-20, Luke 14:25-35, Philippians 1:21, Matthew 6:25-34, Proverbs 24:3-4, Proverbs 1:7, Job 13:15, Isaiah 2:22, Genesis 11, Matthew 7:12-14, Luke 9:23, John 6:68, John 14:6, John 10:10)

Thirty-three on the tree
For a life of debris
What a feat of carpentry!
A way of life made a way of death
But that death made The Way of Life
The straight and narrow Way of Life
That only a few ever find
The crossbeams of its firm foundation laid by Christ
The Lord is the Master Builder and Code Inspector
Without Whom the laborers build in vain
A vain tower of Babel
Built of all that man's capable
A towering monument to ill-placed confidence
And it seems the older you get the less sure of things you get
Every day I grow more sure that I'm not sure of anything but one
I put no trust in man who has but a breath and I put trust in God who gives the breath
The rubble of old towers and old dreams seem to be the same material
The material and substance of things hoped for of impermanence
Down goes what came up and down goes the day- like the old refrain- nothing gold can stay
Midas' touch can't touch this one gold thing that does stay
The Carpenter's luminescent streets- the real life yellow brick road I will one day say hello to in time
The only hope for the future that helps me move past the past and present myself to The Father's present for me
And what a present it is to have reached the same years of struggle our Lord endured
Together with Christ in His glory and Resurrection but first in His suffering
And shall I not accept both good and bad from The Lord's hand?
But let me only fall into the hands of The Lord-
The hands that wound and heal are the only ones I trust
Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him
One day I will also be together with Christ in death
Knowing that because of Him I am always with Him in Life.
Both seeds' and dreams' deaths bring much growth
And the suffering is not worth comparing to the glory to be revealed in the new coming.
The former things have passed- all is made new through the Catalyst of soils' and souls' contents.
The stuff of earth still competes for my allegiance but it joins me thirty-three on the tree
Dying to live and living to die daily- all only for Lord Jesus, my best thought.
Be Thou my vision, mission, blueprints, building and foundation- firm forever holding me together.