Stopwatch

In a moment of defeat: synapses lapsing,
The world plays a siren tune, each minute passing,
Pulls you in and pulls you down amid the laughing,
Join the party, join the fun. Pneumatoxin gassing.

Take a ride on the roller coaster marked with flame,
And leave behind your apprehensions of guilt and shame.
Put an end to the uphills and the hard-won gain,
If you go up, you go down, it's all the same.

Gained trust and planted seed feeds on the inner pride,
As I turn in innocence to my unsavory guide.
Convinced that in the end he's really on my side:
"Nevermind the consequences here's where you can hide."

"Take the hit, take the draught, and get yourself high.
For a time we can forget our duties and our lives.
You can trust me to elate if you'll only come nigh.
Today will be a golden day as we touch the sky."

Lured in by devious measure I choose the selfish path,
Discounting all the outcomes and potential aftermath,
Ignore the possibility of injury and wrath.
Spurned and weakened faith drowns in the self-focused bath.

Drinking in the pleasure makes the senses spin,
And for a moment all is focused on the feeling within.
But when the mammon is all spent rational thought can begin,
And what's retained is not the feeling, but reality of sin.

Having had his way he moves on, turns his back, and ignores me.
Nothing left inside but hatred: my own spirit deplores me.
Shattered remains of my decisions lie mocking before me.
Who would have the power to reach down and restore me?

Forgetting for a moment that most costly Grace,
I turn myself away and hide it from the Master's face.
Wishing I could only find my steps again, retrace,
But I'm disoriented here in this consuming place.

Then through the twisted sky above comes one incredible ray.
It pierces through the mist and turns black night into day.
It makes a burning in my eyes and I must turn away,
Until I see a gilded exit; a sure, narrow way.

Bewildered and unsure I step soft into it's light.
Wanting anything but death I let it do what it might,
Agony as I have never felt: the old Adam's fight,
And find that painful though it was my stains are brilliant white.

As I ascend I see the trap that I was in before,
And find its power wilts, illuminated; tempts no more.
Welcoming arms of a Creator seek only to restore.
And falling on my knees I can do naught but adore.

And onward, ever upward does this steep path climb,
Atop the summit waits Communion with the true Divine,
Who has inhaled every evil, every flesh-made crime,
And every episode is banished in a moment of time.