Had I My Way to Choose (Poem)
Anonymous
Had I my way to choose, how easy I would make it:
How free from chilling blast, how sheltered and secure.
No piercing sorrow should invade the precincts of my life,
No disappointment fall across my eager spirit:
But I would know the sweets of rest,
The joy of comfort undisturbed by any outer power.
Choose then thy way, O soul, but know the way thou choosest.
For thee no mountain heights,
No rapturous delights in daylight breaking;
No sense of victory gained, or evil driven.
No, not for thee the strength that comes in conflict sore;
The joy of grand achievement, the gain that follows every loss,
And most of all the glory of the Cross – these, these are not for thee.
Oh, better far, to let Him choose thy way
Who never chose His own; to let Him lead thee
Through the valley drear, and up the mountain steep;
Through light and dark, through sun and snow, to where
Eternal love makes all things plain, and show us
How severest loss was lasting gain.
Oh, better far, to let him choose thy way: what wilt thou say?
Choose Thou my way, O Lord, I dare not choose my own;
The things I crave for most –
A spirit pure, a heart at ease, a life from sin set free;
These Thou alone canst give: all else is but a passing thought.
Oh, may I not resent Thy chastening hand,
But learn to understand that only Thou canst order me aright.
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