Another place, another time?
The pleasure would have been all mine.
It's been awhile since I've been stirred…
A long time since this has occurred.
Had you but met me long ago...
The tales to tell! The show to show!
I'd never bring myself to miss
The chance to indulge in your kiss.
And oh, I’d have enjoyed so much
The pleasure found in a new touch.
So nice—who would refuse the chance
To lose oneself in deep romance?
My past dictates that I act soon
Just so to feel familiar swoon...

And yet I've found this self control—
A real desire to save my soul.
Rather than gain such tarnished loot
(As would have happened in my youth),
I find myself in serious check.
I haven't even approached yet,
But just the thought has sent me back.
It's fun at first but then? the lack:

No love, no peace, no joy—just pain.
A love song now broken refrain,
The misery of bitter ends.
The pressure as lonely begins.
The wonderment at swift retreat.
The exhaustion of incomplete.
The burden of swallowing pride.
The shame of something else to hide.
Another time, another you?
I did not stop to think things through.
I gained the world but lost within
And had to rebuild life again.

I've sung this song before, you see,
With lyrics soaked in misery.
I now choose songs of sweeter strain,
Ones not so dripping in sharp pain.
And so, I smile but must decline,
This being neither place, nor time.

---

Since I owed you one from the weekend.

I have lived many lives, one being freely lascivious in nature. Men aren’t the only ones who fall into games of sexual conquest—in fact, women are quite adept at playing and winning.

But I have Christ to thank for deliverance.

I won’t bother you to have to believe what I believe (though if you take the time to read any other thing I write, you’re at the very least looking for Jesus); just know that my testimony is that I have been brought out sin and shame, and what I pretended to be and all the things I did no longer have a place in the present of my story.

This poem is pretty much a summary of what it was and what is will never be again. The power of the cross is greater than the power found in playing games with hearts and bodies and minds.

Enjoy.