Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani

With Easter coming up, I wanted to share this poem that was written by my friend, Keith Clayton. I hope you enjoy it.

"Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani" *
by Keith Clayton, Jr. (1968-1998)
* A cry uttered by Jesus Christ while dying on the cross, preserved in the original Aramaic: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" -Mark 15:34.
See also Psalm 22:1; D&C 121:1-8; D&C 122.
Father,
Now the sun is risen,
I thank Thee for Thy silent strength
Given me in my hour of despair;
When the darkness
Seemed to smother,
And the tears
I selfishly shed
For my own pain
Trivial Troubles
–Though self-serving as
Cause and Catalyst–
Enticed me to
Shut out the light,
Rendering myself
Alone.
Father,
Now Thy Son is risen,
I thank Thee for allowing One
So much greater than I,
Thine Only Begotten,
To complete a task so
Wonderful and
Terrible
By leaving Him
Necessarily
Alone.
Father,
In my mind's eye
I can see Him there, that
Fateful Friday evening.
In the garden green of Olivet,
In the still and solitude
The Great "I AM,"
Creator of All
Offered up all He had,
To save those of us
Creatures of naught
Who act
Forgetting who we are.
Guiltlessly He submitted Himself
To all the pains,
The vengeance, and the anguish
Of man, earth and Hell;
And in His hour of need,
The Friend of the friendless was
Forsaken,
Forgotten,
For what?
The Spirit may be willing,
But the flesh indeed is weak;
And they slumbered,
Leaving Him,
Though Balm of Mortal Pain,
In Immortal Agony
And ignominy,
Suffering both
Body and Spirit
Alone.
Father,
It is so incomprehensible to me:
In the beauty of that desert place,
The Savior of All Mankind
Faced all the ugliness
Mankind could create:
The pain, the hate,
The sin, the sorrow,
The waste, the wickedness,
The greed, in injustice,
The pride, the poverty,
The deceit, the ignorance,
The doubt, the fear,
The betrayal
--And even the
Loneliness–
Alone.
Dear Father,
As His immortal, righteous blood
Spilled like sweat
From every pore,
Falling to the thirsty
Earth below;
A wonton waste of Living Water;
I am reminded again
Of His sacrifice for me–
And my impossible
Debt to Him.
I cannot hide
My honor and my awe
At His great love for me;
Neither can I hide
My shame,
Self-reproach
And regret.
Mercy, Dear Father!
With every selfish thought,
With each thoughtless act
And inconsiderate word–
I shudder retrospectively
Looking for a place
To hide from myself.
And as the reverberations
Of hammer against iron
Ring like a death knell
And cries
That might not have been
Fill my ears;
I wonder
Mortified:
"How many of those precious drops
Am I responsible for?"
Selflessly He suffered
The Bitter Cup,
Regardless of His own
Cost or loss,
To do Thy Will,
As our Father,
Alone.
Father,
To One who created Time itself,
Yet is not bound
And has no mortal need for it,
I would that I could understand
How long
You witnessed the sordid scene;
The longest night the world will ever know,
The Solstice of Eternity,
Fell on Emmanuel
And by the light of torches
The Light of the world,
The very God of Love,
Was betrayed by a kiss,
Enslaved by strangers,
Rejected by His own,
Denied by those who
Knew Him best,
And led away
In chains
Alone.
O Father!
How it must have hurt Thee
To witness the sufferings
Of Thy Beloved
Inflicted by Thine other children–
Those whom He had come to save–
Instead, to steadfastly persevere,
And answer not a word,
Amidst the jeers
The blows,
The spit
And scorn;
To see His perfect body torn,
His perfect soul rent in anguish,
Staggering and fainting beneath
The evil and imperfection
Of all mortality
Collectively
Alone.
And, Father, Thou,
Beyond the grasp of human pain
Did surely mourn at the
Mocking of His misery
By so many witnesses and
Beneficiaries of His
Miracles and Ministry–
Those who knew better;
Who unworthily
And ungratefully
Bore Thy birthright;
Those with whom Thou hadst
Cut Thy covenant
Now cut the flesh of Thy Son
Deliberately.
And in the crowded mob
He wept
Alone.
Down the winding passages of
The City of Peace,
Stumbled the Prince of Peace.
Plaited thorns adorned His crown;
Stripped of all but His
Mantle of Duty;
How it must have burdened Thee
To see Thine Own,
Who in innocence
Did glorify Thy name,
Bearing a scapegoat's load–
The weight thereof
Not unfamiliar to Thee,
Which could so mercifully have been loosed
By Thy Omnipotence;
Yet in the name of mercy
Didst Thou allow
This charade of justice
To continue.
At a crossroads He was lifted up
Upon the cruel cross.
And in His torment,
When He needed Thee most,
Thou left Him
Unwillingly
Alone.
Father,
In the vastness of Thy creations,
Was there any place large enough
To contain the immensity
Of Thy sorrow?
Was there any place small enough
And far enough away
To hide from the pleas and cries
Of Thy suffering Son?
Until the moment He pronounced
"It is finished."
Triumphing, at last
Alone.
In olden times, the Scriptures say
Thou wert a jealous God described;
I think I know now why–
Jealous lest man ever
Slight,
Forget,
Or with anything replace
The memory of the Sacrifice
Made by Thy Son
Alone.
O Father,
I thank Thee
For sacrificing Thy
Fatherhood for Thy
Godhood, by
Giving us Thy Son
To pay the ransom we could not.
And by so doing,
Thy righteous heart was broken also–
For what Father could bear to see
His helpless child suffer
And not rush to his aid?
--Instead, to leave him
Intentionally
Alone.
O Father,
I thank Thee
That through the tears that fell
From His eyes
And from Thine,
That my tears may be dried
And my eyes opened
To the Hope of my Salvation,
And the reassurance of my
Eternal worth
--In spite of myself--
That my meager life
Was worth dying for.
And He died
For me, and
Because of me,
That I might live for Him,
In all my days serving Him
As tool and ambassador
Of the love He had for us;
The love that gave purpose to His life
And life to His purpose.
Father, I acknowledge my
Hungering need
To bear and be borne by the
Unconditional Love of Christ,
Who unselfishly serves all those who but
Come unto Him.
As Counsellor,
Advocate
And Friend;
That neither I,
Nor any of us
Need ever be
Alone.
Father,
Let me let Him in!
Let His Light fill the recesses of my soul,
That darkness and evil
Find no place.
Let me always make room
For Him for Whom the inn was full.
Let your Spirit make me wise enough
To seek the King of Kings
As the Magi did;
And as
Wise men
Still and
Always do.
Let me ever joy
In that same glory
That was witnessed
To lowly shepherds
Long ago.
Praise be
To the Father
And the Son!
The glory be
To Him and Thee
Alone.
Please bless me,
Dear Father,
That I may live my days
In remembrance
Of Him Whose hands
First sculpted me in clay.
Whose hands now rest in Thine;
Those hands
Thou once suffered
To be pierced
For my sake.
As He hath graven me upon
His palms,
So let me strive
In His honor
And thine
To graven His image
Upon my countenance,
Possessing and keeping
At all times prepared,
Clean hands and
A broken heart.
Father, wouldst Thou bless me,
That as He bore my burdens,
I may lift all those around me
With whom I share this
Borrowed existence–
And in His name may I
Heal the poor in Spirit,
Feed those enhungered
Of body or soul;
Build up where others tear down;
Make Peace;
Promote Faith;
Spread Love;
Share
His
HOPE;
That as I represent Him
In my small corner of the world,
No one I meet
Will ever be
In need,
In doubt,
Or
Alone.
Copyright; 1998 by Connie Clayton
For the author Keith Joseph Clayton, Jr.
Free to duplicate and distribute free of charge.

I've done a little bit of blogging in the past, but I sometimes feel like I want to do more. I have strong opinions about many things in my life, but I'm the kind of person that doesn't always say what I think, I'm more comfortable listening to what others have to say and silently saying, "You're completely wrong!"

Anyway, recently, I have been reading the blogs of my children. (You can find them in the list of blogs that I follow.) That has stirred the blogging bug in me a little so I kind of wanted to start. So here I go.

First, a little about me. I was born and raised in Utah. I am the 7th of 8 children. I am a life long member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was married at 19 years of age, and have been married for 28 years. We have 7 children. Our youngest child has Down Syndrome. Our children are involved in Track, Cross Country, Choir, Band and a whole lot of other things. 2 of them are married, and my daughter has a son, so I am a grandma. 2 others are in college and 1 daughter has a job as a floral manager at a grocery store. The 2 youngest children are in high school and middle school. My husband works for our local school district as the Network Administrator, and I prepare taxes at a well known company. Which brings me to today’s rant.

Taxes. We all pay them. We all hate them. Even your tax preparer hates them. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy preparing taxes, but I do not enjoy telling my clients that the price of having me do their taxes for them has doubled or even tripled from last year. I do not enjoy trying to sell the latest product that my company is offering. I do not enjoy explaining to my “evil rich people” as I jokingly call them, why they are not getting various credits, why they are paying ridiculous tax rates, etc. I do not enjoy telling my clients that they have a penalty because they don’t have the means to pay for their own health insurance.

I have a few suggestions on what our government leaders can do to help the situation.

1 - I believe every single member of Congress should spend the first week of February in a tax office, helping people file their taxes. If they could see what my clients who have small businesses have to deal with, maybe it might remind them who they are working for, and help them to see that business owners are not the evil people that liberals make them out to be.

2 - I think there should be only one tax rate. I don’t think the country is ready for a true flat tax, but if everyone is taxed at 10% of their taxable income, I think the government would be surprised by how many people don’t worry about itemizing.

3 - Get rid of ObamaCare. Instead, don’t allow the states to pick and choose the insurance companies that can sell in their state. Someone in California should be able to buy from the same company as someone in North Dakota. We can still require them to obtain the appropriate licenses in each state, but the states can’t put a limit on the number of companies selling insurance in that state. You’d be surprised what a little supply and demand can do to the price of insurance. About the only thing I do like in ObamaCare is the option to keep my children on my insurance longer.

4 - Congress should go back to being a part time job. Meet for 1 month and then the members have to go home and live in their states for the rest of the year. See the voters at the grocery store, DMV, school concerts, etc. I’m okay with covering their traveling costs to and from Washington, and their living expenses while there, but they should not spend so much time there, and their salaries should be nowhere near the amount they are now.


5 - Elections should be moved to April 17th. If elections are held while the pain of paying taxes is still fresh in everyone's minds, I think Congress will be a little more motivated to act in the best interest of the American people.

Well, there you have it, my opinion of Taxes and Government, for what it’s worth. I don’t know how often I will update this blog. I may never write again. Who knows. But before you get in a huff about what I’ve said, remember, the title of the blog is Downygirl’s Drivil.