Countdown

 
Most counts ascend in number
because we see what we have
or want to have
We count our things, possessions,
desires and plans,
steps and materials, resources
 
We set a goal, then plan our needs
see if we can acquire and pay –  
reaching for less, if more is too high

                       * - * - *   
Some few counts we make backwards, reducing,
like seconds before the rocket flash,
like months and weeks for dying,
like ballast cast from sinking ship,
think:  sinful Jonah thrown overboard,
or our own faults discarding  –
 
a new way to reach where less is better,
sometimes again we waver back to more
still shaving close the edge of possibility

                       * - * - *   
Christ’s parables spoke of building a tower,
counting higher planned materials
for fear of failing after start  [i]
or king who raised his count of each side’s soldiers,
to choose for battle action:  
struggle or entreat  [ii]
 
Christ illustrates his Way by pointing Up,
but then says  –  for discipleship and following,  [iii]
Abandonment, like death, requires Count Down.
 
(2010s) 
 

[i]   Luke 14:28,  Jesus says  –  “ Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion?”

[ii]    Luke 14:31-32,  Jesus continues   –  “ Or what king, as he goes to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?   Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends an envoy, and asks for conditions of peace.”

[iii]   Luke 14:33  –  “In the same way, every one of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.”