It sneaks up on you unawares
While you are preoccupied
It catches you quite unprepared
Enthralled as you are in your pride.

Blindsided, you flinch instinctively
When suddenly you are accosted
You realize in an instance ‘it’s now…’
Or else you’ve totally lost it.

All those years of pure preparation
All those long times of careful thought
Have arrived at this destination
So why do you feel you are caught?

Shocked by the sudden challenge
Your defensive reflex, a surprise
Call up the ‘the hope that’s within you’
And look them right in the eyes.

Like fumbling with keys in the doorway,
You find you’re at a loss for words,
Why suddenly this ineptitude
Your nervousness seems absurd.

And there is no graceful exit,
No quiet bowing out
No way to delay the inevitable
You’re in the ring, no doubt.

‘Speak now, or else forever
Forever hold your peace’,
The questioner is insistent
She seeks some sort of release.

When the moment of truth is upon you
And you have no time to prepare
Will you know what to say in that instant
Will you find out how much you care?

Will you call on the Spirit for guidance
Will you ask that the cup might pass
Will you be alarmed by your feeling
That the moment is here at last?

Will you feel like a total coward
A child without his homework
Will the force of the question flatten you
Will you turn your head with a jerk.

Will you say ‘I don’t know him’
Will you deny him multiple times,
Will you say ‘I must be leaving’
When recognized, turn on a dime?

When all your learning fails you
And all your bravado too,
When you have no cup of courage
And you don’t know what to do,

Will the moment of truth unmask you
And reveal the imposter inside,
Are you really his true disciple,
Or are you just along for the ride?

In the moment of truth you find out
Just exactly where you are,
Either someone whole-heartedly committed
Or someone who hasn’t gone that far.

Are you flirting with being his follower
Without fully embracing his grace
And when the road gets bumpy
Are you wanting out of the race?

The moment of truth reveals all,
It gives you a progress report
As to whether the truth is within you
Or is it still something you court?

But the moment of truth need not define you
It’s not a final exam,
Even Peter’s denials didn’t end things,
“It need not decide who I am”

And when you see another failing
Fumbling, falling down,
Don’t turn away in scorn,
It could be you on the ground.

But for the grace of God,
We all would come up short
When the moment of truth comes calling,
Christian faith is no spectator sport.

March 10, 2009

BW3