.
The Good Life
What is the good life that God is providing?
What is the good life He seeks to impart?
How can I know that I live in God’s favor?
How can I know that I’m close to His heart?
If in my life I am faithful and gentle.
If I show wisdom without any guile.
If I decry any selfish ambition.
If I am truthful and live not by lies.
Then I shall know I am living by wisdom,
When I shun wickedness of every kind.
Peaceable, gentle, merciful, good;
These are the fruits of a God-centered mind.
Lord, work in me a great harvest of righteousness!
Lord, work in me a great harvest of peace!
Lord, keep from me prideful thoughts about others,
But rather may love be what others will see!
.
.
Rusty Rabon lives in Cayce, SC. He has spent over forty years in Christian ministry as a pastor, worship leader, and radio broadcaster, and continues to serve as an itinerant preacher and worship leader in the Church of the Nazarene in South Carolina. He has two self-published books of devotionals: DO ALL TO THE GLORY OF GOD: A Lenten Journey through First Corinthians, and LIFT UP YOUR VOICE AND SING: Devotional Readings and Hymns for Advent and Christmas. Both are available in the bookstore at lulu.com.
Rusty: I very much appreciate the way your poem poses the Christian life, not as something to be earned, but as something God has prepared for us, and which He offers as a gift. Our proper response is eagerly to desire what He offers and to lay hold on it through Jesus. Beautiful rhythm and rhymes. Well done.
Amen! Thank you, T. M.!
Those are excellent questions we all should be asking ourselves and expecting of fellow Christians.
Thank you, Roy! Accountability with others is a missing element in much Christian discipleship.
I love the poem. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, Norma!
You are not at all rusty; you’re as sharp as a knife.
When the bookshelves get dusty, there you’ll find a new life.
Thank you, C. B.!
Amen to this poem. You describe the Christian walk so well, thank you.
Thank you, Yael!
Strongly spoken, Rusty. A good life is deeds showing wisdom, which lead the doer to knowing that he lives by wisdom. “Wisdom” draws attention as the only repeated “answer” word in this question about life. Its associated rhyming verbs of “show” and “know” tell that acts of wise living lead to knowing what is good by experience.
Another word emphasized is “righteousness,” noticeable because it comprises the only overflowing dactylic foot to end a line. It bigness represents the “great harvest” requested by the speaker as he begins the final stanza prayer portion of the poem. “Great harvest,” like “wisdom,” is repeated. It is identified first with righteousness, then with peace, and at last with the love to be seen by others. It is associated with repetition of “work in me” addressed to the Lord. Just as the second and third stanzas show the works required of the speaker, this prayer stanza acknowledges the need for mutual cooperation of the Lord and his worker.
Thank you, Margaret, for your analysis. I appreciate it!