I
People who live outside God’s word
and flee the suffering of trial,
they’re all just drifting through the world,
like autumn leaves, blown in the wind.
They flutter here, they flutter there.
They never have a place to rest,
much less God’s words of consolation.
They’re only beggars in the streets,
outside the kingdom of heaven.
They’re wandering from place to place,
though God’s chastisement and refinement
don’t ever follow them.
Can you be sure the world’s your place of rest?
Can you smile with ease in this world
if you’ve avoided God’s chastisement?
And can you use your fleeting joy
to cover up the empty feeling in your heart
that cannot be concealed?
You can fool anyone in your family,
yet you can never fool God.
II
Because your faith is all too weak,
you’ve not seen joys that life can offer.
God urges you to be sincere
and spend half your life for His sake.
It’s better than living your whole life
in mediocrity, in labor for the flesh,
enduring all the suffering and pain
that man can hardly bear.
Can you be sure the world’s your place of rest?
Can you smile with ease in this world
if you’ve avoided God’s chastisement?
And can you use your fleeting joy
to cover up the empty feeling in your heart
that cannot be concealed?
You can fool anyone in your family,
yet you can never fool God.
What purpose does it serve to love yourself so much
and flee from God’s chastisement?
What purpose does it serve to shun His brief chastening
and reap shame, punishment forever?
Can you be sure the world’s your place of rest?
Can you smile with ease in this world
if you’ve avoided God’s chastisement?
And can you use your fleeting joy
to cover up the empty feeling in your heart
that cannot be concealed?
You can fool anyone in your family,
yet you can never fool God.
from Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs
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