Think on these things

What if our minds shut up for a moment
Put all our endless bickering and muttering to the noiselessness of a tomb
What if we stopped pursuing that next idea, formula, strategy,goal
Stopped riding that thought wave, interrupted that circuit of impulse
And allowed a moment of silence.

Not just me, I mean all of us.

What if, we all let our minds be still,
...and let our hearts speak.

Motive, reason, lust, ground out beyond a crust
To the edge of a space of innocence
Where the dimmed light and silenced voice of peace,
Patience, mercy and kindness could be given a chance to rise again.

We might understand that beneath layers of Gucci,
Or perhaps when there were no layers,
That the blood flowing in these vessels did not know of our
Motive, or our hatred, or our jealousy or our plotting
The blood just flowed.

It did not know of knives being lunged into chests,
Triggers releasing copper from fiery barrels
Words maiming and failing kinsmen, sons and friends
Turning them into foes, assassins, enemies of the state
The blood we all share turning against each other because of
What our minds told us they saw.

They saw short, tall, weak, strong, stupid, clever
Ugly, beautiful, large, small etcetera
Spurred by want, selfishness, pride, arrogance, ego
All words that spoke but did not tell.

A thousand years of philosophy
And we still cannot learn the simple lessons
Still cannot love my neighbour as myself
Especially if he looks different, smells different, thinks different
Still cannot turn the other cheek, because the pain hurt
Still cannot give before I receive because what will I give with?

A thousand years of thought and ideas and we can't figure out
That the solution to the problem does not begin with the mind
But is hid in the boiling mass
Of red muscle called heart.

We forgot that out of the heart flow the issues of life
Life never knew a philosophy,a religion, a dogma of rights or wrongs
Life was never set in stone
Life moved, breathed, had a being.

Life needed a change of heart.

Life needed Him for He was life, He is life
And in Him we live, we breathe and move and have our being
And we cannot deny Him
For when we do, we deny our own life
Emmanuel- God with us.

Perhaps when our hearts have a change of life
Or lives can have a change of heart
Then our minds can attune anew to this life
For the old life is decayed, rotting
With fresh ideas of inventing restlessness and death
And only the new life can let the mind be still
And think on these things

"whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things."
(Phil 4:8)

Selah.