Lying here in such pain and longing So much of me has been lost All my strength and joy now gone My earthly life is soon the cost
I longed that crumbs might fall That I could savor life’s fruits again To feel not weakness but strength For any way to soothe my pain
Yet no taste nor drink does come Nothing but cold silent rejection As I lie asleep on life’s sharp stones Longing for any sign of protection
Yet finally now I awake to newness An end to my body’s failing health To my journey of the pangs of hunger An end to the painful silence of wealth
And soon I hear a distant cry of longing From those who no longer have it all From a place dark and far and away With souls of painful emptiness they call
They once refused me but I pity them I want to reach out to help but cannot For their dark lives have built a solid wall Holding in the pain they have wrought
In life they did not listen nor hear The needy cries of we who longed Who suffered in emptiness and pain Instead turning away and wishing us gone
Lost forever for them I now lament Oh that they had listened and heard Oh that they had then reached out They too could have lived the Word
In my new fullness of peace and joy I now pray for the living now still there In that place of earthly test and passage That their hearts will be open and so care
Dear Jesus, help me to simply hear Open my eyes to see you in the poor To reach out with a helpful heart Serving those who cry out at my door To do what I can to bring God’s love That we may be together forever At his endless joyful table above