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