The Pathway Of Pain
If my days were untroubled and my heart always light,
Would I seek that fair land where there is no night?
If I never grew weary with the weight of my load,
Would I seek for God’s peace at the end of the road?
If I never knew sickness and never felt pain,
Would I search for a hand to help and sustain?
If I walked without sorrow and lived without loss
Would my soul seek solace at the foot of the cross?
If all I desired was mine day by day,
Would I kneel before God and earnestly pray?
If God sent no winter to freeze me with fear,
Would I yearn for the warmth of spring every year?
I ask myself these and the answer is plain,
If my life were pleasure and I never knew pain -
I’d seek God less often and need Him much less,
For God is sought more often in times of distress.
And no one knows God or sees Him as plain -
As those who have met Him on the "Pathway of Pain."
Helen Steiner Rice
