A POEM BY ASHQUI
I was born into an empire on the rise
Its achievements vast and spectacular
Its future full of the unimaginable
My daily life made easier by comforts and machinery
My mind tickled by all of the information at my fingertips
Surely there has never been such an empire
The poor are rich and the rich live better than any king of old
Potential is a word we hear often
Anything we want, we dream of, and see as possible
Millions of people live on this earth
And I was born in one of the most prominent empires
In my daily life I am accustomed to writing and thinking
I have time if I choose to delve deeply into all the pleasures on earth
My life is sustained, no worry of food, clothing or shelter
Money is made to gain only more
The houses are bigger, the cities merge and the air is filled with transporting people
There are men of learning searching beyond earth
Is there yet another planet we can conquer and consume?
The empires rise and fall in history
How long will this one last?
Will we beat history this time?
Are we in control enough to prevent anything that could take us down?
Have we surpassed the vulnerability of the Ancient Greeks or Chinese?
The Egyptians or Mayans? Of those we don’t even know existed?
I sigh, and from my heart I hear a soft no
No, something is brewing now, a change, a shift
In the East perhaps, a power change?
In the North perhaps, a climate shift?
In the unpredictable universe; a discovery? A catastrophe?
I cannot say, but I sense something
This empire we cannot sustain and, like all others, it will not be sustained
The brewing has always kept shifting, turning, evolving; and it will not stop yet
Nor can I say when God will finally drink this long brewing brew
I truly wonder what His tastes are, when will He deem the brew done
What will it be like? What empire will rule? What city will be the greatest?
Will this ancient brew be bitter or sweet to His tongue?
Perhaps both. Perhaps neither.
I do not say this to bring fear or despair
Let us enjoy what we have now
And let us not be dismayed when the time comes
When this empire falls and another rises
Or when something beyond us transpires altering the paths in which we walk
I do say this to urge you to hold onto your faith
Not the faith of the institutions or the fads of our era
But the deep inner faith the Lord God has placed in all men
There we will find peace and assurance that this empire cannot ever give us
Whether we are the primitive or the learned
There is always the truth that binds us to each other
And above all things we should pursue our Holy God
For in Him we will find no fear in change or despair in loosing what we have now
He is the only sure and eternal existence on Earth. Praise be to His eternal Presence
He has known each empire in their advancing glories and fading powers
Only He knows them all, their true history, every civilization of the Earth’s past
And only He knows what will be of us
I, like many, was born into this glorious empire
And I enjoy it, but my heart stands apart from it all
Its gaze set on the purely eternal, on the rock of God, the Transcender of history and time