A Few Stanzas on Apostasy

“I saw something too. I know that, when the time comes, you’ll be the one to turn.”

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

 

The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, is what I was going for with this rather charming picture of a path on Ben Nevis.

So I know that last week, I promised my next post would feature some practical pointers on ethical shopping – but I’ve had a busy weekend,¹ and the hands of my watch are already creeping their way up to the penultimate hour before said weekend is well and truly over, and I’ve been attempting of late to let myself indulge in some sort of vaguely healthy sleep pattern as far as I can, so … well, if you’re reasonably familiar with my blogging habits, I expect you can see where this is going. Sorry and that. Ethical shopping pointers will come next week. (Probably.)

The below poem was conceived of as an address to myself, rather than to anyone else, because it has occurred to me that I need to hear it. The only other thing I have to say is that the best piece of advice for a believer in Christ who’s worried about the possibility that he or she might end up falling away is, well, take care that you don’t fall away, then.

Don’t you get it in your head, kid, that you wouldn’t:

You know your own internal monologue too well

To fall for any mad suggestion

That you wouldn’t let the question

“Did God really say…?” take root in you, and swell.

Don’t you get it in your head, kid, that you wouldn’t,

’Cause many a brighter flame than yours has fizzled cold.

Souls are swayed by little leaven

From the narrow road to heaven:

Is your flesh not likewise weak as you were told?

Don’t you get it in your head, kid, that you wouldn’t,

As if your heart were so much truer than the rest:

You’ve known your pride, its lust for praises,

For the world’s admiring gazes,

Yet you’d hearken to that serpent in your chest?

Don’t you get it in your head, kid, that you wouldn’t:

You’ve heard the siren-songs of pleasure, wealth, and ease –

Each a catchy little rhythm,

And you’ve oft been humming with them

’Til they’re drowned out by the great refrain’s reprise.

Don’t you get it in your head, kid, that you wouldn’t.

Strive every second not to move from truth you know –

Truth that God, in grace, has won you,

Raised you, set his seal upon you;

And he who for you gave Christ won’t let you go.²

Footnotes

¹ I went to an Imagine Dragons concert with an old friend of mine. It was all kinds of epic – and to top it all off they encored with ‘Radioactive’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktvTqknDobU.

² Bits of Bible my brain drew on in the production of these few stanzas include, but are probably not limited to: Genesis 3:1; Matthew 24:12; Matthew 16:12 (or related passages); Matthew 7:13-14; Matthew 26:41/Mark 14:38; Jeremiah 17:9; John 12:43; Matthew 13:22; Ephesians 1:13; and Romans 8:32.