Fight the Long Defeat

To fight the long defeat,

Is there a nobler cause?

To stay and stand for what is right,

And die before your walls.

The hero of the last stand,

Lone banner waving high,

Some say they came to nothing;

Just a foolish way to die.

Why waste your youth,

Your strength, your song?

Go forge your way,

Your right or wrong!

But what in this world is truly worth,

Our births, our lives, our deaths?

Better lose all, my soul to gain,

Than gain, yet loose my self.

Yes, I know the road is narrow,

The way to heaven hard,

Yet I will never leave it,

Nor e’re let down my guard.

To live for what is right,

The truth is clearly so,

We’re called to follow paths that lead,

Where we don’t want to go. 

Love, forgive the enemy,

Though he stabbed you in the back.

Stand up for the down-trodden,

Even once you’re on the rack.

Simply put, it never was,

Our place to decide,

How our battles shall conclude,

If we live or die.

Such bleakness in this message,

Is there nothing left to grope?

No, piercing pain and darkness,

There shines a light of hope.

For we are not forsaken,

Our strength is not our own,

Our Master has already bled,

Man’s sins to atone.

This world was lost already,

Evil seemed so strong,

But in the end the mastery,

Is not with the wrong.

There will be a New Earth,

Heaven will prevail,

The Lamb will bring out victory,

Though we, the martyrs, fail.

In this hope we stand now,

To do what must be done,

That’s what they call courage,

That’s how our war is won.