Life’s All Over Now

All things work together for good

To them that love the Lord,

To them according to His purpose

In His will are called;

At times we lose sight of this truth

And all things seem against,

The things we took for granted, lost!

And nothing more makes sense.

Our days are like a shadow shrinking,

As smoke the wind has blown away,

As a sparrow lonely on the housetop

We watch life speeding on its way,

We strive to keep the youth we once knew

 But the ageing process takes its toll,

Aching bones and failing organs

“How can this work good?” we groan.

Even worse, we lose a loved one,

Grieving, not knowing where to turn,

“Why? O Why?” our hearts are smitten,

How for what we’ve lost we yearn!

Happy memories cause such sorrow,

Life can never be the same,

Plans and wishes, great ambitions

Splash and pass like falling rain.

Or we find that illness takes us,

Cancer takes its ghastly grip,

Faculties we once relied on

Now we have to let them slip:

Failing eyesight, failing memory,

Needing help where we stood strong,

How can all this work for good then?

Death will come ‘fore very long.

God is far above man’s reason,

Time’s a bubble to fallen man,

Outside time God has great purpose

That Eternity cannot span,

In life’s journey man is blinkered,

Cannot see beyond his shore,

God would have man’s vision expanded,

He’d bestow him much, much more.

So, He gives him words of wisdom:

“All things work together for good,”

Either we are fatalistic

Or we do believe in God;

Through this word our greatest nightmare

Opens doors we never saw,

There’s a path through pain and sorrow

To a realm we can explore.

A hidden realm, a secret realm,

Preserved for just a chosen few,

None would choose a path of suffering,

Not even Jesus, but what did He do?

“Father, if it be possible, let

This cup pass, nevertheless

Thy will, not My will be done,” He said,

And bowed at His Father’s behest.

This realm is a magical, mysterious realm,

Through clouds and loss, the way,

Some despair and never move in,

Rebellious and angry they stay;

But some spy a purpose through the mist and the gloom,

Find the Saviour standing over them close by,

Take His hand and are carried as a lamb in His arms,

He has listened to their sad, bitter cry.

Some seem to fly through life with all they want,

So, it seems to those who look on,

But they never can enter this exclusive realm

While unto this world they belong:

Their values are round what they see in life,

The natural, the carnal, the fleeting,

They will not consider this realm that is higher

While on this world’s pleasures they’re feasting.

But tragedy is an opportunity

We might otherwise never have had,

And once through this door as we come to know God

We then see the good through the bad:

As fruit rotting in the ground holds a seed

That will burst into newness of life,

So, within our circumstance is a way of escape,

To know God in the midst of our strife.

We lose a friend, and we find a Friend

Who will never forsake us nor leave us,

We lose a spouse, a parent, a child,

But find the Saviour is near us;

We establish a bond that can never be broken,

To never again suffer loss,

‘Twill weather the storms of life and of death

That we’ll never again bear this cross.

Affliction may strike and change life overnight

From which we will never recover,

At a stroke we find many pleasures removed

But a closeness to God we discover;

We find that though all else we may lose

God remains steadfast for ever,

Like a child we begin a new journey with Him,

With a love we find nothing can sever.

We did not choose the lot we have

But like Jesus, we willing can be,

We can fight our condition, become angry and hard,

 Miss our great opportunity,

Or we may like Jesus say, “Nevertheless,

Not my will but Thine be done,”

As a little child receive the Kingdom of God,

To sit at the feet of God’s Son.

To know what it means to take up our cross,

To be worthy of Jesus our Saviour

Is to lay down our life, our very own soul,

The only acceptable behaviour:

To love the Lord more than father, mother, spouse,

Sons, daughters, brothers and sisters,

Yea! More than our own life, this is what it means,

To be a disciple of Jesus.

Tragedy makes us face what we value in life,

What’s of value we never can lose:

What’s eternal, what’s of God, what’s of substance

Can never, no never be removed!

What is fleeting, what is temporal, what is fashion

all can pass,

Like the flower of the field fade and die,

Thus, the greatest crisis in our lives can become

Our greatest blessing overseen by God on high.

God will not reveal what’s awaiting in this realm

Before we step through faith’s door,

Some never will know what they’ve missed here below

As they stubbornly stay wretched and poor:

God will not trespass on man’s choice

But if he’ll believe, if he’ll trust,

He will enter the “Beauty of Holiness” here

Where all things work together for good!

Peter Burt