Lament against Violence

Last updated on May 17, 2024

I wrote this in 2015… and found it tonight, after having an interesting reflection on salt and light today. It seems … important… to put this out here, because not much has changed, hey.

—

When the body of a small boy washed up on the shore,
It seemed for the briefest moment
as if
the heart of the whole world

Broke

and for the second, perhaps, this madness would stop.
But then more boats sank,
and more bombs drop
and so
much
hate

and the children are collateral damage
and innocent bystanders are the targets
and the city of love knows hatred
and Lebanon weeps beneath her cedars
and
I can hear a 50-year-old dream
-unrealised –
As yet more die for the colour of their skin

The world, it seems, has grown so dark and even safety is a bitter illusion
and my heart is so heavy

and yet
I hear a still small voice, urging us out of that place of heaviness
a voice, crying from His own place of supreme pain, that calls us to
be salt
be light in the darkness

and so we pray for the pain
of those who survive
and we pray for the lives damaged

but more
we pray for the courage to
be salt
be light
to cast the darkness aside
and to draw out the bitterness

we pray for peace
let us be the peace