“Die Broke” (Luke 1:2; Chapter 15) [Die Broke/Luke series – “rule number 10”] [language series also]

“The overwhelming arguments”, the author’s footnote said,
“Are still against inheritance” – start living in the red;
For dying broke escapes taxation governments impose;
So stick it to the man, as your life draws now to a close.

This guy is not a history buff, or social in his ways;
He figures he got to this point by self-sufficient days;
That’s silliness; that’s ignorance; we would have lost the war,
If Yankees had not filled the breach as others did before.

Our language paints a different pix of flux of shifting folks,
Down through the eons, through shared days of sullenness and jokes;
Our languages are aspects of a massive project done
By every person living, as by those whose victory’s won.

How far would this fair author get with sidekick’s fifteen books?
Five hundred pages plus they wrote – and editor partook –
And publishers, and marketers, as cogs in oiled machine –
Oh yeah, he says, live for yourself – for that’s what freedom means.

Now Luke, a doctor long ago, had different take on life –
Collected he a treasure trove, and sought to tell it right;
“Passed down to us” (Chap. 1, verse 2) we pass it on to you –
Thank God folks did not live for selves, and die with Christian view.

We’re so enriched (as I am too by his almighty tome),
By things passed on to us these days, like books from parents’ homes;
This brave new world he postulates has freedom, to be sure,
But living out a selfish life holds not finances’ cure.

I am, like those who’ve gone before, a “servant of the word”;
That’s “slave” in some translations – take that collar (quite absurd) –
It took its fashion from the slaves around in former years –
A slave, or servant, of the word, with output wrought in tears.

I’ve got some friends and relatives who live Luke’s way as well;
We’ve tried to share the gospel-light for those in living hell
(Or headed down that road, as I myself, as TCK,
Was on until Psalm 23 brought lamplight to my way).

“Do unto others as you’d have them do to you”, it reads;
That’s best articulation of one’s dreams, for path it leads
Us to, is freedom, joy, and satisfaction, like he says,
While bringing great prosperity through target-role it plays.

For we will drift (or drive into) those tasks defined this way;
We cannot pass on other side of road each passing day;
For we’ve been there – appreciate (or else, we wish we had),
So find ourselves in perfect freedom helping out a tad.

It preaches well, this “selfish stuff”, no heritage to pass
On to next generation, beat up souls without an ass;
But that is not eternal wealth, just fluff, and strut, and fears;
So knock it off and fill the breach – relieve unwanted tears.

Thanks Lord for this.

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