Dragons

Stand where your feet are planted.  Stand in the brittle, frosty grass and harden your face against the cold wind.  You stand there because you love the Son, so you say.  You stand there because it's hard.  Because it's tough.  Because the Son deserves your last measure of devotion and zeal.

Don't look down in the warm valley, that soft and billowing landscape--treacherous!  Treacherous with mire and mud, a stinking swamp that eats away your hardness and lets the filth seep in slowly.  One hears of a glowing, fiery beast--a Dragon that will eat away your hard-earned dignity and leave you limp and loose on the ground.  If you lose your strength, your hardness, you will have nothing.  Turn your face away from the valley, for there be Dragons.

Stay in the cold wealth and majesty of the mountains.  Stay in the grandeur of cold, hard righteousness.  Hold onto it tightly.  Hold onto it like you hold onto the Son.

Northern warrior, with your weathered face set like a flint against sin, have you set your face against the Son, too?

With your ears stopped against lies, have you become deaf to the Living Voice?

Oh you say that you love Him, but will you turn now and see Him standing in the distance, in a land of Dragons?

Weep if you must, Northern warrior, for it will cost you everything to go and stand with the Son.  There is no wealth where He stands, except Himself.  There is no grandeur where He stands, except Himself.  There is no righteousness where He stands, except Himself.  Those who come to Him must loosen their pride and be burned, be left lying on the ground without dignity or restraint, so that He can build you into a new warrior.

There will be hardness, but it will be the Son's hardness.  There will be strength, but it will be the Son's strength.

Pick up your Sword to do battle with the Southern Dragon, for it must be slain if you are to steal its flaming hoard.  Be careful to choose the only Sword that can pierce its scaly hide--the Living Voice, which is a Sword that only carries and is never carried, that wields itself and is never wielded.    

Go give yourself to the devastating heat of the Southern Dragon.  Be devoured like a living sacrifice is meant to be.  Don't hold anything back.  Lie on the scorched ground, with the writhing remains of the dead beast, and wait for the Son to come and build up your ancient ruins, to clothe you in His mighty righteousness.

Don't just stand there--run!  Run South, for there be Dragons.