The Road Ahead

“Okay, Stu, the task for you is clear;
The road ahead you’re on, the end is near
For all this stuff and nonsense to this date –
Hang on, and do this part – and don’t be late.”

Lord, as I look around I am confused,
But get the feeling I should be bemused
At all these days of grasping in the dark,
As now, on this adventure I embark.

You showed me parts – not all – but parts I’d seen –
“Take photos of folks working – what that means
For each and every one, a focus task,
And carry out for each this work I ask”.

I’d said, “If I should one day see those books
I’d seen, passed by, returned, but someone took
From bookstore shelves that Christmas long ago,
I do that work, Your task for me I know”.

Though that’s not this – it’s more like this is that –
You’ve given me a part within that task,
And said that You’d provision on my way,
As I ride forth emboldened on this day.

You brought me to this little Kodak book,
On how to capture drama’s daily look
Within my lens – the thrill of daily life
As we transition now from dead of night.

Lord thanks for this small step you’ve given me,
To take, fulfill, and capture faithfully;
Thanks for poetic pictures you have given –
Three parts in one for which I have not striven.

First part is land on which we walk each day,
From which we draw our resource and hence our pay;
The earth with its abundant treasure store
From mother earth – we have no need for more.

The second part is work – as we extract
Our sustenance in many ways – in fact
It’s infinite – Your providential hand
Which feeds as we draw near to under-stand.

The third is culture – how we shape our ways
Around resource extraction through our days;
Three-layered-cake which changes over time,
The middle one to photograph – that’s mine.

Lord thanks for all the folks who’ve shown a way
For me to do Your work each given day,
So I can leave a paper-trail for them,
That others follow on this trail again.

Don’t let me take this up and make it mine,
But rather, touch to give that others find
Their lives enriched for having me come by,
That they might find Your way before they die.

Thanks Lord for this.

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