Author note: I know, this one is kind of depressing. I promise the next one will be lighter!

Walking through this frail existence
In our peaceful promised land,
We heedless see the warnings
And fail to understand.

We hear of distant fighting
And read of foreign war,
But far removed from conflict
It seems like ancient lore.

We speak of gnawing hunger,
But what do we really know?
We reap in huge abundance
And ever fatter grow.

We frown on wasteful opulence
And, haughty, act appalled
From within our statued gardens
And our palace, marble walled.

No longer do we tell the truth
Of gender, life, or race,
For feigned political correctness
Usurped that virtue’s place.

Thus growing life within the womb
A mother does not defend,
And man to man makes marriage—
Or so we would pretend.

Honor and politicians
Have long since parted ways,
Replaced by selfish scheming
Is how they spend their days.

By theft they redistribute wealth,
An act that should scream jail,
While propping up pet enterprise
And Titans too big to fail.

And two plus two now equals ten,
Or so it is we’re told;
While the alchemist’s discarded copper
Has become the purist gold.

Wrong—no longer is it wrong
And right—no longer right,
Thus lulled by lotus flowers
We fail to follow light.

So with morality tossed aside
And standards turned to dust,
Society’s underpinnings
Crumble with cancerous rust.

Like ostriches with heads in sand
Or pigs in muck and mire,
Eagles content to scratch in dirt
No longer look up any higher.

For God is gone, that old wives tale—
By a BANG it all began!
And evolution is how we’re here
There is no master plan.

So smugly we think we know it all
Thus blinded by naiveté,
We do not see the notes unsung—
The Composer’s yet to play. . . .

For surely a change is coming
Can you feel it? Test the wind.
For the crimes we have committed
And the sins we each have sinned.

Then things we did not understand
For certain we shall learn;
As the world descends in darkness
Dying, begins to . . . burn.

---

We live in a crazy time.  It is a time the scriptures say people will call “evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! ( Isaiah 5:20).  We know that the closer we approach the glorious return of Christ, in equal proportion will be an increase of wickedness throughout the world.  We should not think that we will be immune from the hardships that will come either.  Looking at the degradation of society should clue us to judgements that must come.

With these thoughts in mind.  I made a list of some of the things in society that directly contradict God’s law, things that show we are “ripening” in wickedness (D&C 18:6).  I put these in poem form.  The original poem was a combination of several poems (including When It Ends and Believe) but I could not get it to flow right.  So, I started chopping it up.

I finished this poem and one night, a couple days later, I was going to bed and then had the thought that it had a similar message to “The God’s of the Copybook Headings” by Rudyard Kipling I remember reading some time ago.  The next day I looked it up and was amazed to find many parallel thoughts.

And still it is true today, as it was in the days of Kipling.  Judgement is coming; for God will not be mocked (D&C 63, specifically verse 58).  While we know the course society is on will continue to decline, we can individually make the choice to stand on higher ground.  We can stand for righteousness and virtue when wickedness abounds.  We can be a sure and principled pillar in a sloshing sea of shifting relativism.  We can be the voice of serenity and peace when turmoil and chaos reign.

And we can shine the Light, when all other lights go out. 

(See John 1:9, John 12:46, Matt 5:14-16, Luke 12:35, Mark 13:24-25, D&C 6:21)

Written: December 3, 2017