Harlot

Harlot: noun \ˈhär-lət\ : A prostitute; Whore

“When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, ‘Go, marry an adulterous wife and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the LORD.’  So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.”

I just spoke silence with the seeker next to me
She had a heart with hesitant, halting speech
That turned to mine and asked belligerently
“What do I live for?”

I see the scars of searches everywhere I go
From hearts to wars to literature to radio
There’s a question like a shame no one will show
“What do I live for?”

“There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away; the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea are swept away.”

We are Hosea’s wife
We are squandering this life
Using people like ladders and words like knives
We are Hosea’s wife
We are squandering this life
Using bodies like money and truth like lies

“For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”
Because I have depended on my own strength.
Because I have turned to idols and have exchanged your glory for ashes.
Because I can keep playing the game and at the end of it all come before the feet of Jesus and hear, “I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!”
Because my prostitutions and adulteries hang like scarlet upon my flesh as I enter your courts again – consumed and broken.
Because I played the harlot with everything else in my life, and I never gave you my heart. When it was my heart you were after.
You desire mercy, not sacrifice?

There is truth in little corners of our lives
There are hints of it in songs and children’s eyes
It’s familiar, like an ancient lullaby
“What do I live for?”

“The LORD said to me, ‘Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.’”

If we’ve eyes to see, if we’ve ears to hear
To find it in our hearts and mouths the word that saves is near
Shed that shallow skin, come and live again
Leave all you were before, to believe is to begin

“Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
“In that day,” declares the LORD, “you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master.’ … I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD…I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’ “”

We are more than dust, that means something, that means something.
We are more than just blood and emotions, inklings and notions,
Atoms on oceans.

“Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but He will heal us; He has injured us but He will bind up our wounds. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will restore us, that we may live in His presence. Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge Him. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.”

And so we lay here – fallen – our purpose, dreams, ambitions, and egos decapitated by the question plaguing the shameful, the seeking, the listeners to the reverie of life:
“What do I live for?”

Soli Deo gloria

“Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until He comes and showers righteousness on you.”