Relentless

Relentlessly the flow of time sweeps on;
Like Arthur, few good years before I’m gone;
High pressure for I dissipated am,
With interests great and insufficient time.

If I were just to cut back to one thing,
And to that project all resources bring,
Sequentially knock off each listed task,
I’d better feel about my future’s past.

So, what to do to beat the chaos back –
Approach that’s best as angle of attack?
First, buy some time, extend of the quality
Of sixteen years before I’m eighty-three.

Why eighty-three, and sixteen years ahead?
Because it rhymes – “Whenever I am dead”
Is what it means; beyond that I can’t see,
So what the heck – from now ’till eighty-three.

My dad? He wanted twenty, he got three –
That’s months, not years, so buying time for me
Seems wise, as I’ve no reason to ignore
The warnings I’ve received (and wish no more).

Three things I’ve been alerted to en route –
My “weight and shape” attention needs no doubt;
Related, is nutrition, that makes two;
With stress kept low in everything I do.

But those three things are not a base for life;
Nor quality relationship with wife;
But rather, base is interactive talk
With Christ, as core of interactive walk.

Christ’s ministry was just a thousand days;
And Kennedy’s as well, so nothing says
That length is somehow linked with quality,
And quality as base is best for me.

So when I look at book’s constricting rings,
And ask myself what insight that it brings,
I see I’m here in giver-land at last,
Ditch-pushing one as I’ve done in the past.

Encourager I am with giver side;
Objective? Move folk to where they reside –
“Be with yourself that’s journeyed up the road”
Like Abraham – take life-agenda’s load.

Sixty percent resource should anchor thee
Where you desire to go and some time be;
With forty used to lubricate the way;
Right now in present job’s where you should stay.

But that won’t change much in the years ahead –
Shift up to eighty (five) perhaps as led,
But sixty should be minimum, now nine
Months have gone by and you are doing fine.

When I apply that to my life, I see
Right off the working context is not me;
But rather I am me where e’er I am,
Sixty to eighty-five where e’er I can.

The truck I drive is me – I get around;
The context where I work is shifting ground;
The issue is percent I do each day
Of who I am, what I put out, my way.

So ten to twenty (forty at the most),
Percent of time and effort is just toast,
From point of view of who you are at best;
It’s used for private time, including rest.

But sixty up to eighty-five is goal
You need to pay attention to if whole
You wish to be, as person in the world;
That doesn’t change when calm begins to swirl.

So, who am I? Five things I’ve seen as “tree”
(Not things I do, that things I am to be);
Five tools, or ways and means I often use –
Transferable they are, and jointly used.

Five things God does through me in others lives,
In contexts three, the last of which now thrives;
So, Stu, keep sixty up to eighty-five
Percent of effort there, while you’re alive.

So when I plug that in, what do I see
In sorting out my core activity,
As contexts mix and match beneath my feet,
When “sixty – eighty-five” expresses me?

Thanks Lord for helping me to rise up above
The nitty-gritty detail, in Your love;
I see once more, “Don’t hook into the world
As framework for your work within the swirl.

Thanks Lord for this.

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