When God Shakes the World

     I have been wondering why I have not been able to write poetry about such major events as the Covid pandemic, the looting and violence following the George Floyd demonstrations, and the multi-city mania to defund our defenders, the police. It is not as if these events have not affected me. Covid restrictions continue to impact my daily life, especially now, while we're traveling and eating out. And when Kalispell had its own Black Lives Matter demonstration, I was concerned that the thugs who have hijacked peaceful demonstrations elsewhere would bring violence to my community. But then I happened to run into two polite, well armed young members of our local Patriot Guard, they reassured me our town was in safe hands. Some claimed to feel threatened by the guns, I felt relief. They also protected our veteran's statue round the clock long afterwards. The only cry to defund the police in our area came from a handful of people in Whitefish, probably the same type afraid of our good guys with guns.
    I think the reason it has been hard for me to write a poem about this is because, from my perspective, there seems to be no rhyme nor reason for what is happening. It appears to be one global knee jerk (or perhaps just Jerk) reaction after another. Today, for better or worse, I wrote the following.

 

          When God Shakes the World

When God shakes the world, we should listen.

Instead we talk, about

              origin, blame, theories,

              responses—others

                                   ours.

As if a global pandemic and rampant rioting

                          somehow slipped unnoticed

                          under the radar of God’s sovereignty.

As if man, and the enemy of man,

                               has an agenda

                               and God does not.

When God shakes the world, we should listen.

Because we do not understand God plan for the world

                                                         in times like these,

                                                         only His plan for us

                                                         at all times                                                      

                                                         to be salt and light

                                                 to a world that sin is killing,

                                                 by violence, if not by virus.

When God shakes the world, we should listen.

He is waking the complacent from slumber

                                       and many of those

                                                 are us.