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 weigh 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 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."

 
                                               Author Unknown