Drawing The Line

 

I remember an early Art lesson

It was about drawing lines,

They had to be straight and accurate

No ruler was used at that time.

The line was to be drawn at once

No ruler, yet by the rule,

And of course, back in those days

Teachers were not playing school.

Standards were strictly kept

Not much room for meandering,

The rule-book was the line of demarcation

With scarcely an excuse for overstepping. 

  

The lines were not blurred like today

They were kept with a steady hand,

However, somewhere along the way

We have misplaced that plan.

Instead, little today is absolute

There’s no absolute right or wrong,

I mean even at the highest level...

No disrespect to the Crown.

Even there the lines have been redrawn

Time and time again

Via legal calisthenics and manipulation,

From the reasonable to the insane.

Lines once steady and sharp

Are now painfully blurred,

How we could vacillate so unashamedly

Is nothing short of the absurd!

I fear for our very young children,

What will become of them?

What kind of world will they exist in

Given the extent of our problem?

What will be their right and wrong?

Will they even have a conscience?

Will they accept the biblical standards

Or walk the road of least resistance?

Will we continue to blur the lines

Even in the church

And misguide them along a perilous path

Blindfolded and precariously perched?

Or will we show them the line again

As drawn in God’s Holy Word

And describe to them the benefits therein

And ensure that they have heard...

By drawing that line for ourselves

And setting an example thereby

So that our children and children’s children

Would on that same line rely?

No overstepping of the line,

No navigating too near the edge

Less a slip or accidental misjudgment

Snatches them from the ledge.

The contrary waves are raging

They have encroached beyond the shore,

Now the tsunami is threatening

The lines are there no more.

Stewart Russell © November 2019