Ascent

Murmuring muddled voices
percolate from familiar lairs of sheltered indifference
hidden in the dark, dank cracks and crevices below
mocking this aborted ascent
and coaxing a return to an iniquitous past
and its inconsequential malaise.

Hope and determination
born in the faith from a calling in Jesus Christ
to rise from the shadows and shine in his light,
have become hopelessly entangled in clinging vines of doubt and indecision
now desperately clutching a narrow ledge of fear and uncertainty
and facing an imminent defeat whose only term of surrender
is an abhorrent descent
into that passionless pit of godless existence.

"Climb higher," Christ calls,
his words commanding thoughts
echoing off of heartbeats to the deepest reaches of the soul,
reminding that salvation through his redemptive blood
has secured an undeniable purpose determined at the dawn of all creation,
and as faith finds courage in his strength,
focus returns to the summit
and resumption of the ascent.