Michel Quoist paints a powerful picture of the person who is upsidedown – whereby he means that their values are completely the wrong way round. God’s will be done, or my will be done?
If we put the gym before God,
Fitness of body, which will rot,
Before our spirit, which rots not,
Then we are truly tapsalteerie.
If we’re too busy for prayer and
Choose other things to do instead;
If silent pauses fill us with dread;
Then peace is beyond such as we.
If we never gaze beyond the here
And now, missing the sacred signs,
Found in creation’s clear designs:
Our lifeway code is… baloney.
If we hold fiercely to the familiar,
And are immured to life’s pace,
We fail to feel the Spirit’s trace,
And our piety is rank hypocrisy.
If we burn ourselves out, working
To improve our children’s future,
Stressing wealth as sole treasure,
We leave them a poor posterity.
If fashion means more than faith,
The outward show, our only focus,
And spirituality is just hocus-pocus:
Upsidedownness rules our gravity.
If we must have proof in all things,
Analysing the weft and warp of life,
Slicing wonder with reason’s knife:
Our joy will be running on empty.
If we never chance our arm to love’s
Unpredictable sway, we stagnate,
Ripe prey to prejudice and hate,
And extremism of every variety.
If we think that death is the end,
Preferring to surf the secular tide,
Rather than trusting Him who died,
We will be surprised by eternity…