The Stewardship Of Creativity (Nehemiah Chapter 13)

Okay – the system’s been set up
For preaching, as the times are tough –
A focus-group to vet the Word,
So just essential parts are heard.

When we are speaking in a place,
One fact of life we soon must face,
Is what we say’s not what gets heard –
In focus-group we trim the Word.

Like Nehemiah, system’s set –
A patterned way which we can get
Our work and life into a flow,
Through which the bulk of life might go.

Then all that needs be done are those
Emerging parts – with dancing toes
We can finance as they emerge,
While in the swamp we’re not submerged.

In Nehemiah’s case, it seems
The Sabbath-day had not been seen
By locals as a gift for them –
Long-term, a system to amend –

The drift community would take,
If time to center they’d not make;
The last thing God created was
The concept, “Stop”, and that’s because –

Creation is the part of life
We do as image of God’s light
Within the dark, with chaos ’round –
But we must stop, so it stays sound.

If we get twirling, we won’t see
Our way in God, so, soon we’ll be
Out on some lonely hillside cliff,
Like some lost sheep that needs a lift.

So, “Stop!”, Old Nehemiah said,
“Stop weekly or you’ll soon be dead!”
A system’s what he put in place,
And antic-ly he made his case.

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