Songs In The Night

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 Ecclesiastes 7:2-5  It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to...

Is The Cross You Wear Too Heavy To Bear? Complainingly I told myself, “This cross was too heavy to wear!” And I wondered discontentedly Why God gave it to me to bear. I looked with envy at others Whose crosses seemed lighter than mine, And wished that I could change my cross For one of a lighter design. Then in a dream I beheld the cross I impulsively wanted to wear... It was fashioned of pearls and diamonds, And gems that are precious and rare. And when I hung it around my neck, The weight of the jewels and the gold Was much too heavy and cumbersome For my small, slender neck to hold. So I tossed it aside, and before my eyes Was a cross of rose-red flowers; And I said with delight as I put it on, "This cross I can wear for hours." For it was so dainty and fragile, So lovely and light and thin; But I had forgotten about the thorns That started to pierce my skin. Then in a dream I saw my cross ... Rugged and old and plain; The clumsy old cross I had looked upon With discontent...