Psalm to the Lord: With Instruments Give You We Our Praise

Let the boldened brass proclaim His name!
The strings and woodwinds join along!
For His power and majesty reign supreme.

All our efforts should amount to nil,
If they were to pay Him for all He's done.
No amount could we pay for all He's done.

So instead we sing, instead we play,
Our notes to heaven, for those divine ears.
Those ears which hear all earth below,
And for a thousand ages have heard our cries.

Raise your voice! Resound the notes!
Let the instruments of joy join along.
For our Lord is good, and it pleases Him to hear
The hymns of praise unto His name.

Love Is...

I was thinking what it really means to love someone. True love, all four encapsulated into one single aspect? The love of God, of a friend, of another human, and of the opposite sex. I've decided this:

Love isn't about what you seek. It's not something that you can measure by how much pleasure it's giving you. Love is about finding someone whom you pursue endlessly, so that you might pursue their desires. Not only their physical presence, but their mental and spiritual presence. They root themselves in your mind when they are a thousand miles away or just in the next room. Your entire existence is built for pleasing them because they have invaded every aspect of you, and you are left in complete surrender to them. This is why true love lasts. It is why God never stops pursuing you. It is why the man and wife spend sixty years in the same place together. It is why the missionary devotes all he has to sharing the gospel in the poorest of lands with the most desperate of people. True love gives.

Purity in God's Sails

Purity you seek in me, O God,
A heart unblemished and without spot,
Driven divinely into your will,
A journey into your own heart.
"It can't be done," the many say,
For their minds are set on the things below.
Their hearts are ships with broken sails,
Driven whereover the wind will lead.
But you've built my ship, O Lord,
And set my compass to yourself.
And wither the wind should wander me weary,
The breath of your voice will drive my sails straight.
Purity you seek in me, O God,
Steer this ship towards a greater shore.
Bring me toward the land you've set out,
And set my feet upon your golden sand.

A Short Rendition of "Every Man" I Wrote in High School

Austin Aldrich
Miss Colley
English 12 HNRS/101
10.11.07

The Seeker

IN WALKS SEEKER TO EMPTY, LARGE CITY
Seeker: Fail me! Fail me! And all shall fall fail!
This cursed ground my heart once did sail!
Who shall lift me from my grave sorrow,
And to my life inspire the 'morrow?

LAUGHTER PASSES BY, SORROWFUL

Seeker: Laughter, laughter, my joyful old friend,
What good news does my brother now send?
Have you a joke to fancy my heart,
Or a new deed that shall humor start?

Laughter: Nay, I have none new jokes to proclaim,
And to such gossip my mouth is tame.
I cannot lift thy spirits, old friend,
For now into hell do I descend.

EXITS LAUGHTER INTO FURNACE FACTORY(HELL)

IN WALKS SUCCESS, HAIR GONE WILD AND SUIT RUFFLED WITH OPEN, EMPTY BRIEFCASE

Seeker: Ah, success, my eldest of allies!
What news for me have you to surprise?
You've clothed me so well and fed me dear,
What business shall my golden ears hear?

Success: What fool you have been to waste your gain!
The poor, dead man's blood on you does stain!
You never did as your Maker told,
Left the orphaned, forsaken the old!
All for me, yet do us in you've done,
Now from debt do we both in haste run.

EXITS SEEKER INTO FURNACE

Seeker: Oh! Shall all in this hour forsake?
My spirit's remainder now ill take?
Ruined am I to the greatest degree,
Ne'r shall happiness I again see.

ENTERS PLEASURE, OLD AND HOLDING BACK IN PAIN AND DISGUST

Seeker: My spirit's lifted! You I have found!
To lift me from my sorrowful ground!
Let us go and make merry the night,
May boredom upon us take good flight.

Pleasure: Fool! Oh, fool! My bone's be so brittle,
What once of me great now is little.
Our candle once lit died swiftly out,
And now do I die, this none shall doubt.

EXITS PLEASURE INTO HELL

ENTER ROMANCE, A BEAUTFUL WOMAN IN A FAKE GOLD DRESS WITH BLANK, UNINTERESTED STARE, AS IF SPOTTING HER NEXT VICTIM

Seeker: Alas, though riches and honor fail!
With romance now, I shall soon prevail!
My habits she'll break, my deeds, undo,
Shall I be whole again when she is through!

Romance: When does a fire, lit well with a match,
Eternally to its wood attach?
We've had our flame, our romantic laugh,
Now the time has come, and I seek half.

Seeker: Surely not, shall you leave me as this?
Have you so soon forgotten our kiss?
The sweet, intense, and passionate bliss,
Shall you lay me into this abyss?

Romance: You did well, and filled me for the while,
Whole was our bed, my raiments in style,
My jewelry always of finest earth,
And yet a new man must I unearth.

Seeker: Depart! Depart! Oh, temptress wild!
Once so holy, so pure and so mild!
Thought I once you should bear well my child,
'Till our vows you have now so defiled!

EXIT ROMANCE INTO FURNACE

ENTER POOR, HOMELESS MAN, RUMMAGING THROUGH THE GARBAGE




Seeker: What ails you, friend, that you should search thus?
Sit, dear stranger, and let us discuss.
Your appearance shabby and undone,
As if cares thrust upon you were none.

Poor Man: I am poor, for many were rich.
And for their high place, ne'r shall I switch,
For many men I find now like you,
Whose worries are many and friends few.
Listen, now, and you I will inform,
How your cold heart may flee your soul's storm.
None shall fill you, whose cares are his own,
All your friends I shall never condone.
Seek and shall you find within the door,
The happiness you've been search for.
Come, my friend, now across this old street,
Guard for traffic, let not slip your feet.

POOR MAN AND SEEKER WALK AGROSS STREET TO LARGE SKYSCRAPER

Poor man: Knock well, my friend, and they shall soon come,
For the Owner's ears are made not dumb.
Listen! I hear! Now opens the door,
Of life and love here forevermore.

POOR MAN AND SEEKER ENTER INTO PARADISE