No Painful Toil

Sometimes I feel gifted not blessed
Lost in my paths and not predestined
Owned not loved
Trying to survive and not living in abundance
Sometimes thoughts of despair bombard me
That maybe this God we praise
Turns a deaf ear

The prosperity of the evil kills me
The reign of the profane wears my heart
Just as the triumph of the lazy
Leave me in awe and gaze
How the unbelievers’ jigsaw gets solved
And how their walk seem ordered and directed
Make me want to be like them
To live in their world
And delve in their ways

Have nothing to do with their fruitless deeds
The word cuts through my soul
Do not be yoked in their ways
It deeply affirms
But why do their lives look so sweet?

I saw disrespect among their marriage
And fake love gracing their lives

I remembered their daughter telling me
How she cries herself to sleep
I saw a man reduced to ashes
And one with a disease he cannot fathom
I witnessed disaster in ill-gotten wealth
Reminding me of how God
Detests dishonest scales

I saw a poor man’s shelter, weak and cold
Her kids, tattered in clothing
And her wife worn out toiling the hard crust
It was not until I shared in their meal
That the warmth of laughter soothed me
That the genuine smiles wrinkling their faces
Brought peace, love and togetherness
Then I lived long to witness
The blessing of the poor souls
I was then reminded that
When God blesses
He adds no painful toil in it
So quit wishing to have someone’s life
Make yours the best it can be