No choice

No choice                                                                                             
 
A horse put through its paces –
it doesn’t matter in which direction it turns.
 
The purpose is not to get anywhere,
but to train and strengthen the horse.
 
Joy is encouragement whispered
          in a tucked-back ear.
Suffering is spur-shaped and bloody.
 
Abraham, placing Isaac on the altar,
lay his own heart under the sword.
 
His Beloved advised, “Choose God,
because . . . there is no choice.
 
“God is Love, or else
your boy is dead already.
 
“Willfulness leads you in circles.
No gate but the starting gate.
 
“Only submission can lift you from the spot you’re in.
Grow wings and become a creature of the sky!” 
 
O child of God, choose obedience
and compulsion will cease to bind your spirit.
 
                              (from A Jewel in the Dust, 2011)