Shepherd

        Shepherd                 3/12/96


There will come a day when I am redeemed by my kinsman.

If one believes the promise of God
Then what is this life but passing tribulation?
When I see what you hold out, how can I pursue the world?
This life becomes a prison for me and all its ways, a taste of hell.

You spoke a harsh word to the arrogant heart
But to the broken heart, you were kind.
To the heart in the chains of bondage you were gentle and kind.
How I have struggled against the steel
And shuddered against the arrogant words
How confused I have been by the insatiability of the flesh
And the futility of compliance and sacrifice.
How disillusioned I have become because of the failure of misdirected love.

So then, is it all for nothing, and shall I just perish and burn?
Are all my years fruitless after all, and my labor in vain?

How they threaten me with their threats of rewards!
Expectations and lofty levels of performance.
But I am too broken.
Their rallying cries are causing stampedes
And we who are weak are trampled to the ground,
While the rest thunder toward the cliffs.

I have heard of a shepherd who is tender hearted toward his lambs
And careful with the older ewes
His voice I long for

I am lost in the thronging mass,
Lonely and mournful.
I can only hope he will find me
Amid the clamor and the bustle and crush




Listen.
There is a voice of love
And its language is a healing tongue that washes clean
There is a loving eye
And its light shows an open door, a fire lit within.
There is a listening ear
And of all it hears, it sifts out the chaff, and keeps the wheat
There is a shoulder of love
Strong to carry
And a place, in the end, to rest secure.