Sunday, December 30, 2007

The Story

O belly up to the bar my son
And I'll tell you a tale of wars unwon,
Of battles unfought, of heroes unsung,
And peace unshaken, and hatred undone,

Where peace is a warcry, where love is a blade,
Where refusal of violence sways the unswayed,
where compliance is force and theft is a gift,
where vengeance is taking yet one more fist.

My story's an old one, my story is new
My story is earth and it's rain and it's dew
It's Jesus alive and it's Jesus who died
It's Jesus who stamps out self-righteousness, pride
It's Jesus who lifts up the humble, the weak,
It's Jesus' embraces for all those who seek.

It's barriers broken and swords melted down,
It's weeping with those who would see you cast down,
It's being a brother and sister to all
It's selling possessions and chasing a call

O son, tell the story to all who have ears;
The story's been growing for two thousand years
And it will keep growing, son, if you take ahold
of it and live it, like the endlessly bold
Saints who've walked out the story through time,
Who've sung out its lyrics, who've marched to its rhyme.

Oh let the story roll on like a song;
Let it rasp out of throats, let it clash like a gong,
Let it swell like an ocean and sway like a tree,
Let it stand like a beacon and draw all who see.

Son, make it a mission, the story I tell:
Make it your orchard, and make it your well,
Where you eat when you're hungry and drink when you're dry.
Make love your blade, and peace your warcry.

5 comments:

  1. Amazing. If I had a keyboard, I would put it to music...

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  2. Very, very, very nice work. Amazing. I second the putting it to music idea.

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  3. I third it. Sarah and Jerry should put it to music and you all should sing it. :)

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  4. Beautiful. It does sound like a song... ya'll have to work on that.

    By the way-- I have changed our bog address to www.thecampbellchaos.blogspot.com
    (since we no longer live in socal!) :>P

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  5. Hey...haven't seen you around in a while. I figure you're busy with life and all that entails, which doesn't leave much time for blogging. But--I thought I'd let you know, I posted that essay I promised you.

    Love and miss you,

    Holly

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