The Sword

Chinese – English

I have heard it said many times that whatever divides is not of God. Of course, that simply depends on what is being divided and why. Is it not of God to divide sheep from goats, fleece from sheep, truth from error, heretics from the faithful, wheat from the tares? The problem is that those who make the statement above presume to be sheep or, they are under the false notion that pain and suffering and sorrow arising naturally from division are products of Satan and not of God. But these same people indulge in dividing others in the Name of God and think nothing of it. And does not God wound and break? Does He not call to forsake wife, children, parents and friends? Is forsaking easy and pleasant? If so, it would not be forsaking.

 

I am not sent for division’s sake;

I do not come to attack;

Strife and debate I do not sow,

Yet all these are found where I go.

 

I haven’t come for evil’s sake,

Bearing trouble, sorrow and pain,

Yet the sword I bear

Will cut in two

And each half in two again.

 

There are those who wish to take the truth

And claim it for their own

But others, joined to them, declare

“If you go, you go alone.”

 

I cannot help but cause this woe

If I am to speak what is true;

I can only hope as time goes on

That your loved ones will come too.

 

But you cannot wait for them to come,

The time to take heed is now.

Just as you cannot wait for yours,

The call cannot wait for you.

 

As friends increase, my enemies mount

In numbers greater still.

There are very few who know they are sick

And eager to swallow the pill.

 

But many there are who take offence

That the truth should upset their life

And hence the division, the sorrow, the pain,

The debate, the anger and strife.

 

But come if you will, take the medicine,

Be healed in your soul, set free

And in place of what you leave behind,

There are far greater things to be.

 

Lethbridge, Oct. 1, 1984