Love Gifts (8 page)

If I can endure for this minute

whatever is happening to me

No matter how heavy my heart is or

how dark the moment might be—

If I can remain calm and quiet with

all my world crashing about me,

Secure in the knowledge God loves me

when everyone else seems to doubt me—

If I can but keep on believing what

I know in my heart to be true,

That darkness will fade with the morning

and that this will pass away, too—

Then nothing in life can defeat me,

for as long as this knowledge remains,

I can suffer whatever is happening,

for I know God will break all the chains

That are binding me tight in the darkness

and trying to fill me with fear …

For there is no night without dawning,

and I know that my morning is near.

People need people and friends need friends,

And we all need love for a full life depends

Not on vast riches or great acclaim,

Not on success or on worldly fame,

But just in knowing that someone cares

And holds us close in their thoughts and prayers—

For only the knowledge that we’re understood

Makes everyday living feel wonderfully good,

And we rob ourselves of life’s greatest need

When we lock up our hearts and fail to heed

The outstretched hand reaching to find

A kindred spirit whose heart and mind

Are lonely and longing to somehow share

Our joys and sorrows and to make us aware

That life’s completeness and richness depends

On the things we share with our loved ones and friends.

Why things happen as they do

we do not always know,

And we cannot always fathom

why our spirits sink so low.

We flounder in our dark distress,

we are wavering and unstable,

But when we’re most inadequate,

the Lord God’s always able—

For though we are incapable,

God’s powerful and great,

And there’s no darkness of the

mind God cannot penetrate …

And all that is required of us

whenever things go wrong

Is to trust in God implicitly with

a faith that’s deep and strong …

And while He may not instantly

unravel all the strands

Of the tangled thoughts that trouble us,

He completely understands—

And in His time, if we have faith,

He will gradually restore

The brightness to our spirits that

we’ve been longing for …

So remember there’s no cloud too

dark for God’s light to penetrate

If we keep on believing and

have faith enough to wait.

Yesterday’s dead, tomorrow’s unborn,

So there’s nothing to fear and nothing to mourn,

For all that is past and all that has been

Can never return to be lived once again …

And what lies ahead or the things that will be

Are still in God’s hands, so it is not up to me

To live in the future that is God’s great unknown,

For the past and the present God claims for His own …

So all I need do is to live for today

And trust God to show me the truth and the way,

For it’s only the memory of things that have been

And expecting tomorrow to bring trouble again

That fills my today, which God wants to bless,

With uncertain fears and borrowed distress …

For all I need live for is this one little minute,

For life’s here and now and eternity’s in it.

You ask me how I know it’s

true that there is a living God.

A God who rules the universe—

the sky, the sea, the sod—

A God who holds all creatures

in the hollow of His hand,

A God who put infinity in

one tiny grain of sand,

A God who made the seasons—winter,

summer, fall, and spring—

And put His flawless rhythm

into each created thing,

A God who hangs the sun out

slowly with the break of day

And gently takes the stars

in and puts the night away,

A God whose mighty handiwork

defies the skill of man,

For no architect can alter

God’s perfect master plan.

What better answers are there

to prove His holy being

Than the wonders all around us

that are ours just for the seeing.

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 search for God’s peace at the end of the road?

If I never knew sickness and never felt pain,

Would I reach for a hand to help and sustain?

If I walked not with sorrow and lived not with loss,

Would my soul seek sweet 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 this and the answer is plain,

If my life were all pleasure and I never knew pain,

I’d seek God less often and need Him much less,

For God’s 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.

Whenever I am troubled

and lost in deep despair,

I bundle all my troubles up

and go to God in prayer…

I tell Him I am heartsick

and lost and lonely, too,

That my mind is deeply burdened

and I don’t know what to do…

But I know He stilled the tempest

and calmed the angry sea,

And I humbly ask if, in His love,

He’ll do the same for me…

And then I just keep quiet and

think only thoughts of peace,

And if I abide in stillness my

restless murmurings cease.

Pleasant little memories tuggin’ at my heart

Keep me thinkin’ of you when we are apart,

And with every heart-tug, wishes sweet and true

But I don’t mind the tuggin’ at my

heartstrings all year through

Because it’s mighty pleasant when

it’s being done by you.