The Question

Kind Lady what luxury you possess

You’ve wealth and riches I envy and protest…

Why have I none of these? I’m a good person

I’ve worked long and hard…yet,

For all my labor all I have is poverty and debt…

Looking at the lowly man

My heart goes out to him…

And slowly I ponder his words, then, begin…

Lowly man…

Would you travel the roads I’ve been down?

Would you walk in the heartache’s I’ve found?

Would you squander all your earnings, live in a barren town?

Would you dance the dance of sin and shame…?

Would you waste your youth on vanity and ruin your good name…?

Would you cry alone, unending nights?

Try to take your life?

You see, I wasn’t always in all this finery, as you so plainly put it…

It was one dark night with everything lost, I cried in despair to a God I thought no longer cared…

Responding to the Shepherd’s voice I clung to Him and made my choice

Leaving the sin of my discarded life behind…

I took up my cross and followed the one who brought me to His blessed breast

He took my heart of stone…

And there I was redeemed…

These earthly things you envy Sir are not the things I sought

For peace and rest cannot be gained in the market place to be bought…

Only Jesus and His saving grace, will give you what you seek…

All these things are temporal; they’ll decay and fade away…

But what I have is eternal, given freely to all who believe and pray

You see, Jesus Christ, lived and died, to wipe our sin away

So if you want, what I have, Sir, then ask Jesus to come inside…

He’ll transform your life and bless you, more than you could ever dream

Earth’s wealth and riches, are not what they often seem…

It’s Him, who lives inside of me, which gives my life meaning…

If you’ll give your heart to Him alone; make Him your reason for living…

If you’ll lose your life for His sake, you’ll gain your life by giving…

Hope to the hopeless, faith to the faithless, peace to the restless, grace to the graceless,

You’ll gain God’s favor, which is priceless, and you’ll never, ever, be poor again.

~Marla Shaw O’Neill May 30, 2018 

Matthew 16:24-26 Good News Translation (GNT) Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you want to come with me, you must forget yourself, carry your cross, and follow me. For if you want to save your own life, you will lose it; but if you lose your life for my sake, you will find it. Will you gain anything if you win the whole world but lose your life? Of course not! There is nothing you can give to regain your life.