When Your Life is Gone

By Gerald Cowan

                                    When life has closed its door on you

                                    And you have gone to your last sleep,

                                    No longer present on the earth,

                                    Will any miss you, any weep?

  

                                    The self-absorbed may answer, “Yes,

                                    I will be missed; there will be tears.”

                                    But why? Will they be tears of joy

                                    Or tears of sorrow, pain, and fears?

                                    If you are missed it may imply

                                    That you touched other lives for good,  

                                    Encouraged and supported them

                                    And healed their hurts as Jesus would.

                                    If not missed what will that imply?

                                    You went on your own selfish way,

                                    Saw nothing but your own desires?

                                    Perhaps did not for others pray?

                                    On what you gathered for yourself

                                    Your legacy does not depend

                                    But on the lives you marked for good,

                                    To whom and how you were a friend.

 

                                    When life is gone and you must meet

                                    God’s Christ, the Lord who judges all,

                                    Then what you did for others will

                                    Determine if you stand or fall.

                              

                                    When life is gone you will not weep

                                    Nor for missed treasures raise your voice.

                                    If Jesus says, “You come with me

                                    To heaven,” then you can rejoice.

- Gerald Cowan, a longtime preacher and missionary, is retired from full-time pulpit preaching. Gerald publishes an e-mail newsletter entitled GERALD COWAN’S PERSONAL PERIODICAL WRITINGS. He is available for Gospel Meetings and he may be contacted at Geraldcowan1931@aol.com