Don't Cut Me Down, Lord

Don’t cut me down, Lord,
Though I have caused some sorrow.
Please don’t cut me down; let
My last day be tomorrow.
Don’t cut me down, Lord,
Please just give me one more year.

I know they can’t see it,
But it isn’t lost on me,
All the work you’ve been doing
While I’ve been growing weak.
And I appreciate all your toiling –
All this tilling around my feet,
Even the dung you’ve been dumping –
Day after day and week after week –
On these shiny boots I am wearing.

Don’t cut me down, Lord,
Please just give me one more year.
Don’t cut me down, Lord;
But wait for my shadow to clear.
Please don’t cut me down, Lord,
My hope is still living here.

I have my own reasons –
Excuses at their root –
For not bearing your good fruit,
But I could use another season
In your sunlight and truth to recover.
Please help me find some way
To survive this dark cloud cover;
Stand up under my own weight;
To reach out - gently touch her.

Please, don’t cut me down, Lord,
Just give me one more year.
Please, don’t cut me down, Lord,
But give me one more year.
Please don’t take me home yet,
My love is still waiting here.

__________

And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

(Luke 13:6-9 ESV)

Grain and Wine Abound

Their harvest has come
The barley is done.
The grapes are ripe.
Their vintage goes right.

But though their fields are green
And the yields are high,
Their silos still go empty.
And within their vast granary rooms
The voice of hunger sighs, its fear echoes faintly
While cellar door hinges grow green and rusty
Waiting for the missing groom to show.

They have so little; I have so much.
Their storehouse is filled with sorrow,
But the wind reaps my shouts of joy.
They have nothing; I have you.

___________________________
There are many who say, “Who will show us some good?
Lift up the light of your face upon us, O LORD!”
You have put more joy in my heart
than they have when their grain and wine abound.

(Psalm 4:6-7 ESV)