– reflections in the shadow of Isaiah 10
What bothers me
is how quickly we trust the axe.
How easily we forget
that violence, even when it seems effective,
is never virtuous.
That power, however polished,
is not the same as wisdom.
That God may use the axe,
but God is never its servant.
I’ve been sitting with Isaiah —
sitting in the ruins, really —
where nations forged alliances
with the very empires that would grind them down.
Hoping perhaps that cruelty, once domesticated,
might become a friend.
But cruelty does not cradle.
It cuts. Always.
It bothers me
that we still chase strength over justice,
that we prefer wealth over mercy,
that we build our futures on what gleams
rather than what grows.
And I don’t understand
the clenched fist, the shuttered house,
the lives built like fortresses
when the world is crying for windows and bread.
I believe that another way is still possible.
I believe small trust still outlasts grand empires.
I believe generosity
is resistance
to all that devours.
So yes—what bothers me
is not just cruelty.
It’s the way we keep mistaking it
for salvation.
The Afterword 
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