Are We Really Serious?

 

Are we really serious

About a being called the devil

And that he prompts us to do wrong

Undoubtedly at our peril?

And are we equally serious

About a being we call God

That provokes the good there is

And whose beneficence we laud?

And what about those people

Who believe neither nor,

That simply live from day to day

Whether there be peace or war?

Every now and again I wonder

If we have not been fooled

And it is all a gigantic hoax

In which we have been schooled.

And what about our laws?

From where did they originate?

Who or what is responsible

For our moral or immoral state?

Concerning good and evil

From whence did these emerge?

If you really know the answer

Please tell it to me, I urge.

Could so many people be wrong

As it relates to these matters?

And if so, please tell me,

What is truth and what is chatter?

Must there be some intelligence

Who is ultimately responsible

And if so can we know for sure?

Is this really possible?

Does it really matter

What anyone truly believes

Since there is a seeming free for all

And we all do as we perceive?

Are we really serious

About the challenge we take on

Rising up each and every day,

Some of us even before dawn?

Are we really serious

To believe in nothing at all?

I dare say that is impossible

Ever since the original fall.

As ludicrous as it may seem

There had to have been a fall,

It is the only thing that makes sense,

Nothing else does at all.

Two powers for good and evil

Let’s take it from Act 2 Scene 1,

Act 1 unfolded in heaven

And now the battle lines are drawn.

The force for evil was established

And now operates in the earth,

Our fore parents fell for Satan’s ruse

And that affects every birth.

“Born in sin” the Psalmist puts it

As ridiculous as it may seem

And this inclination to do the wrong

Is what is clearly seen.

So easy, like drifting down stream,

Doing evil appears our default,

Upstream is out of our character

When evil we are called to halt.

Exploration, some may call it

Not that we are essentially bad,

But skirting the root of the problem

Always seems to make us glad.

Are we really serious

When we choose to believe a lie,

Especially one that makes no sense

And the truth we dare deny?

I ponder but for a moment

Only because so many won’t believe

But then I dare to trust in God

And His Word I receive.

All of life is but a thread of faith

Most of it lived out unconsciously,

From day to day we go our way

With confident automaticity.

We rely on things implicitly

And on human beings too,

We never question the pharmacist

When he tells us what to do.

We spill our gut to a counsellor

And in doctors we confide,

And without the slightest hesitation

We take what they prescribe.

Yet we question the Word of God

And deny that He even exists,

Falling headlong for the delusion

When in fact the truth we missed.

Are we really serious

When we say there is no God

But admit the devil made us do it

Aren’t we there and then, frauds?

As the cost continues to climb

On the things our hearts desire,

Don’t we recognize their futility

And our need for what we require?

Are we really serious

Exchanging the truth for the lie

And falling for the delusion

On which only fools rely?

Stewart Russell © November 2019