On the evening of President Obama’s second term in office, regardless of anyone’s political proclivities, I pause to reflect on the one great fact that subsumes all others: Christ our Lord it is who ultimately leads us and strengthens our arms to love and serve.

The ink is dry, the eyes are wet,

the table’s turned, the cast is set.

One plan dies, another one lives,

not without pain but it, wisdom, gives.

We aim’d to lead and change the world,

through every challenge fear we hurled.

Every obstacle, dark and drear

must meet with faith, not wanton fear.

The coldest wage still paid in time

are those whose hatred’s willful crime

purports to guide but kills instead

the heart of our compassion, dead.

But though with every fiber’d will

we put to rest our need to kill,

there yet remains love’s dividend

of Christ, the Lord, our journey’s end.