Tuesday Prayer for 11/26/13: Beat

(Inspired by Isaiah 2:1-5)

We have beat the ploughshares into 

swords and

coal-carrying trains and

missile-firing drones and

pollution-belching smoke stacks and

We have beat our pruning hooks into

spears and

life-disrupting mobile this or thats and

earth-ravishing chemicals and

ever-meaningless coins and

We have beat our people into

defeated-depression and

soul-crushing submission and

life-devaluing objects and

prescription-enhanced servants and

the earth itself feels the weight of every step and

the sky itself has become weighted and

God 

mourns 

and

hope feels more and more like an advertising slogan and less like something that is

Real.

It is, though, 

"something that is real.”

Hope.

Is.

Real.

Because there is a difference between being "beat" and "beaten" and

THIS is the difference 

that makes every oligarch shudder and

every abuser worry and

and every oppressor wake

in the middle of the night

in a 

cold 

sweat.

There are arms out there strong enough to beat those swords into ploughshares.

There are feet out there strong enough to stomp those spears into pruning hooks.

There are backs strong enough to break chains and

Those people who have been beat?

They have not been beaten 

and they can beat

back.

(beat beat

beat beat

beat beat

beat beat…)

(From http://www.rootforce.org/2008/06/19/peru-turmoil-slams-copper-supplies/)