As the Ruin Falls
All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.
I never had a selfless thought since I was born.
I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through:
I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.
Peace, re-assurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin:
I talk of love --a scholar's parrot may talk Greek--
But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.
Only that now you have taught me (but how late) my lack.
I see the chasm. And everything you are was making
My heart into a bridge by which I might get back
From exile, and grow man. And now the bridge is breaking.
For this I bless you as the ruin falls. The pains
You give me are more precious than all other gains.
C.S. Lewis
Wow! Now that is poetry about the true human condition. Phil Keaggy recorded this to a hauntingly beautiful tune, and I learned it by heart as a result of the music when I was a teenager or college student. Good theology.
Grace and peace to you. I hope to post the first chapter of a new novel (Breakers) here within the next few days!
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