P
oetry   
Christian Destiny Christian Destiny
Opportunity

    The highest wave of any tide
       Breaks only once upon the sand.
    Each billow that is subsequent
       But marks the sea’s receding hand
    In lingering isometric lines
       Etched by the foam upon the shore,
    A record written down the beach
       Of fullness once, that is no more.

    Does not the sea in this conspire
       To illustrate God’s way with men,
    How life presents one highest hour
       To make the thrust with sword or pen,
    Or valiant deed, or act of love,
       Or sacrifice, or gift, or word,
    Or consecration of this life
       To serve beside our glorious Lord?

    And is it not apparent, too,
       That other moments, other days,
    That come beyond that highest hour,
       Though lovely in a hundred ways,
    Do hardly match the quality
       Or privilege and hope sublime
    That in our heart of hearts we knew
       Within that pinnacle of time?

    Who then can calculate the loss
       To heaven and earth and in the soul
    When youthful heart, preoccupied,
       Says “no” to God’s benign control,
    To flounder on through wasted years
       Consumed by ravages of sin
    With vacant heart and vacuous mind
       To dream of life that might have been?

      —Dave Breese