My desire for you, my friend,

Is the same as for myself

To be freed from gross desire

For more things or for more wealth

Through embracing sharing ways

That can nurture inner health.

 

My desire for all the Earth,

Its resources and life-forms,

Is that human beings grow

Far beyond consumption’s norms

To adopt economies

Which avoid growth’s cyclic storms.

 

You and I my friend are called

To heed words that Jesus said,

“Many barns, or clothes or gold

Leave your spirit’s needs unfed.

More will never be enough,

All you need is daily bread.” *

 

In the main our human tale

Was just struggle to survive

But past urges we required

Don’t help people now to thrive

If we choose to rape the Earth

And destroy what’s still alive.

 

God of all the cosmic ways,

Which consume and then renew,

May we follow nature’s truths

In the things we think or do

Seeing past a doom filled end

To embrace an eco-view. **

 

*Bible references: Matthew 6:31-34, Luke 11:3, Luke 12:15-21

** or “cosmic view”

Alternative tune: SPANISH CHANT

Note: If it is appropriate, members of the congregation could turn to those next to them during the singing of the first two lines of verse one.

Text and Music © William Livingstone Wallace.

Click here to see the score:  Wallace.My Desire For You My Friend

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