Thy Kingdom Come or Bubble Gum?

solitude sits like a wise old man with a rag tag bible in his lap
Your roadside signs await in his leather bound gift wrap
my right hand unlocks this pop up book of old
while my left holds fears and questions like mosaic gold
Could I truly "forget what's behind and strain toward what is ahead" (Phil 3:13)
will I choose one course and turn around to see the death of a flower bed?
eight years of planting a dream and "shadows of things to come"
but reality is only found in You, the one and only one (Col 2:17)
You said submission to authority leads to "knowledge of the truth"(1 Tim 2:1-4)
But could they see through the rhetoric with their swimming minds of youth?
I spoke in codes that the law would allow to try to point them to You
"Carpe Diem" and "Follow your dreams" and "To thine own self be true"
Or was this only just "philosophy, deceptive and hollow" (Col 2: 8)
At the end of the day could they really name who they were meant to follow?
You've called us to "proclaim freedom" and "preach good news to the poor" (Luke 4:18)
All along, that's what I thought I was doing behind my classroom door.
A mission of unchartered territory inside the brick box of public school
but perhaps one voice can't be heard in the world of majority rule.
But it isn't just a job, it's looking in their eyes, listening to their stories
wiping tears with failures and cheering in their glories
I "clothed myself in compassion" (Col 3:12) and I know they felt Your love
But at the end of the day, is "this really cool teacher" all that they speak of?
Is my time away from family truly helping "thy kingdom come"? (Matt 6:10)
Am I bringing You to their lives or is it all just bubble gum?
So even though I'm working hard, maybe I'm standing idle and still (2 Thess 3:11)
Lord, show me if I'm giving up on a dream or moving on to chase after Your will.

"By your words I can see where I'm going;
they throw a beam of light on my dark path.
I've committed myself and I'll never turn back
from living by your righteous order . . .
Festoon me with your finest sayings, God;
teach me your holy rules . . .
I inherited your book on living; it's mine forever—
what a gift! And how happy it makes me!
I concentrate on doing exactly what you say—
I always have and always will."
Psalm 119: 5-6, 8, 11-12


"Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." James 4: 14-15