RISE UP

HE SAID "RISE UP"
(c)2008 Stephanie Durand

Time cannot erase their words,
Their deeds, their spiteful ways
Time can only move on by
And watch as the tolls are paid

They attempted to destroy the heart
That held them closest near
And because of their shame and hurtful ways
They will never see it clear

The town heard the liar's cry
And stoned an innocent one,
Like Jesus, she held up her cross
And drug their burdens like His Son.

A year has gone by
And still they cry and blame the one they choose
Without shame, without guilt,
Only pride, because they'll never lose

She refused to turn her heart to stone
She refused to hide and run
From evilness and lies and hate
And she waited while hated,
But clung to the One.

Who, in the end,
Knows all the rest, who knows of the things untold
Who walked beside her on that road
And continued to tell her,
just grasp my hand and hold

He'll turn the ashes of their destruction
To beauty beyond belief
He'll heal the wounds that they inflicted
Because they were always brought to His feet

To say today, she deserves to pay
For something she did not do
Is what God would call, the ultimate fall
Of Christians old and new

For one day, they will say
That perhaps they all were wrong
Perhaps they judged things unseen
And eagerly threw their own stone

From biblical days to here and now
Humans fail to see
How they choose to scorn the one they choose
Because it is only in their minds, they believe

But God reigns over them all, and like
the woman in the center, the woman by the well,
The woman who Jesus holds closes to His heart
Has her own story she must tell

There are reasons why
At times, He says, we have to stand alone
And He tells us when it is time to rise up
And gather up all the stones.

And we take a big breath and we shake in our flesh,
But with our spirit, we must rise up
to do what is right and just and
to fight the battle He's placed ahead of us

With strength and dignity, at our weakest,
We hold The Hand we held,
And stand before the judges now
And this story, we have to tell

For truth and justice, of pain and suffering,
Our flesh must follow through
For when God tells us to Rise Up
It is in Him, we must trust, obey, and listen to.