My Lord has blessed me

My Lord has blessed me
with more than I can account for.
On the days when my heart is heavy,
it is heavier still with the guilt of not being poor.

Why give me a house, dear Lord,
and a family alive and well?
Why give me the food and clothing
when others suffer life so well?

Wasted on me they are, Lord
for I am unworthy and unclean.
I’ve longed for more of this or that
when I have had umpteen.

I’m thankless, greedy, slothful,
and I fight against your will
Yet, the greatest gift which breaks me, Lord
is that you love me still.

I know you sharpen in suffering,
and yet I’ve never suffered.
Except by my own wretched cause
or from the guilt of glutton-hood.

I’ll never understand, Lord
why you’ve blessed a wretch like me
with the perfect grace of Jesus Christ
who gladly died for me.

So strip my heart of earthly things
and drive my hand to work
I’ll use this thorn of gluttony
and temporal treasures shirk.

And when at last I’m blessed
with suffering to be withstood —
in this poverty of worldly things,
I’ll sing: “My God! My God is good!”

Written by: Marine Graaff

(Painting: ‘The roses of Heliogabalus’ – Lawrence Alma Tadema)