Lament For the Human Bent

PAD Challenge day 12: For today’s prompt, write a lament poem. 

Have we not all lamented with Paul..."oh, wretched man that I am!!?" 

Whether we're here

...or here...

...we're all in this together!
Let's love one another, 'kay?

To keep us sympathetic to the plight of fellowmen

It seems that we need small or big reminders now and then

But bent of human nature is a hard fellow to shake

Inclined to the returning to habits so hard to break

With honk of horn and shake of fist (or, one finger salutes)

The ‘better man’ we plan to be ‘the other man’ refutes

Though hearts often soften when stunned by grief and tragedy

Soon it seems they slip back into the Who-we-used-to-be

But lest Best Intention succumbs to laments of defeat

It’s “up and at ‘em, everyone, love ain’t no easy-street”

The donuts(or do-nots) we indulged in or the good that we neglect

The ‘moral treason’ we commit… Today we will correct!

...and lest our prideful nature thinks we can do it alone
We should humble our want and wish so sly and stumble-prone
Before the throne of He whose loving kindness is the grace
That overcomes the nature so common to human race

© Janet Martin

 
The Conflict of Two Natures
      14For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 15For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

      21I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.