A poetic response to the violence during this past week

With the shooting at Virginia Tech, the ongoing conflict in Iraq and other violence this past week, I find myself reminded of a few poems and a song I once wrote:

Too Young
I saw him Thursday,
Who would have thought,
It would be the last time.

He died in random violence.
How or why, it doesn't matter.
He was too young
To Die
Too Young
To make a difference
And yet it hurts
That I will never see him again

I must admit, I didn't know him.
I just saw him in class.
But still I feel sad.
No one should be lost.
He was too young.

Another Life Ends
STAB! STAB! Darkness.
Another life ends. Another kid kills.
Another family mourns.
Another case begins.
What could be the motive?
Why him? Why now?

Now we recognize the violence.
Now it hits close to home.
What response is correct?
Is it payback time, or
Mourning time?
We don't need another death.

This violence must stop
Before it goes too far.
How many other lives must end
Before we realize the time has come?

Pray, Christians, pray.
Work, plan, work.
We all must do something.

We Are One
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
-Galations 3:27-28

We are one in the Spirit; we are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit; we are one in the Lord
And we pray that our unity would one day be restored
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

We, Your children, have suffered injustice
We, Your children look to you for justice
Yet when we look deeper we find ourselves perplexed
For we see within ourselves the perpetrator of this affront

You created each of us unique
And we have tried to be all the same

You made us black, white, red, yellow
And we have tried to be gray

We have denied the very nature of our being as the image of God
And embraced our sinful dust essence.

You created all of us equal
And we have made inequality the rule.

Forgive us, O Lord
We have sinned against You and against each other.
Enable us to forgive each other.
Unify us by the power of the blood of Your Son

May we be servants of Thy peace,
Sowing unity where there is division,
Sowing reconciliation where there is racism
Sowing love where there is hatred

We repent, Abba.
Have mercy on us.
Transform our hearts.
Make us the people You desire us to be
And may we be one in You.

We are one in the Spirit; we are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit; we are one in the Lord
And we pray that our unity would one day be restored
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

All praise to the Father from Whom all things come,
And all praise to the Spirit Who makes us one,
And all praise to Christ Jesus His only Son,
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love

There is a White
There is a white for this black of ours.
It will show itself in its hour,
But we who hold it in our hearts,
No ray of dark can penetrate our parts.

But what of this light?
What use is it, if it cannot shine bright!
Too often we turn away its source.
We take out our swords,
Made by the hand of Satan,
And slash it into oblivion.

But this light cannot die.
It cannot be swept away.
There are those who have claimed it
And the light lives on in them.

The light has a place in all of our hearts.
Every single one must play its part.
Through them this world will change.
Through them it will exchange
Its darkness for the EVERLASTING LIGHT!