ONE TREE HILL

© Graham Barker 1992

I'd walked a steep path upwards to the place I now sat resting,
   upon a lofty pass between two peaks,
and there I viewed the path I'd trod through valleys long and testing,
   now shadow-filled except for sunlit streaks.

With face turned down, displaying frown in contemplation gloomy,
   I looked back on my life's walk and its ways,
and though I could acknowledge some great joys that had come to me,
   my mind dwelled on the grey and rainy days.
The images of past events like colour slides projected
   lit up my mind, and all I seemed to see
were cases where I'd been despised, maltreated and rejected,
   and others failed to show much care for me.
I pondered all the many times I'd strived to do the right thing,
   to live a godly life, to love and care,
and been rewarded by the snubs of people cold, rejecting;
   self-piteously I grumbled "Its not fair!"
Engrossed in negativity, my thinking all self-centered,
   I wondered if God really understood
just how it feels to be repelled by so-called friends, tormented,
   and made by them to feel that I'm no good.

Just then my God saw through my thoughts and mental bad behaviour,
   and said "My child, stop looking at your woe;
look up, instead, to Jesus Christ, your one and only saviour,
   who suffered more than you can ever know".

From where I sat I looked up to a nearby rocky mountain
   whose summit bore a solitary tree,
and pictured there the Son of God hung bleeding like a fountain,
   nailed to the tree to die for folks like me.
Forgetting my own woefulness I pondered all the trials
   that Jesus had endured when on this earth -
the temptings and the discipline, the endless self-denials
   for hostile men who couldn't see his worth -
and stood amazed that one so pure just took without complaining
   such insults from the ones he came to serve,
and stayed forgiving, meek in love, from evil thoughts abstaining,
   when their abuse he never did deserve.
Insulted, beaten, ridiculed, stoned, spat upon and slandered,
   forsaken by his closest so-called friends,
deserving love but getting none the Son of God, rejected,
   forgave them all and loved them to the end.

When I surveyed my sinful self, my selfish thoughts and acts, and
   compared them with the Lord I claimed to serve,
I saw how far I'd fallen short of God's great holiness, and
   received only the treatment I deserve.
What right have I to wallow in my moanings and complainings
   when Christ put up with far, far worse for me?
If only I would concentrate on God's abundant blessings
   I'd have no time for negativity!

Thus ended my brief reverie; I rose and walked on upwards
   towards the mountain with the single tree,
not looking back with eyes or mind I joyfully strode forwards
   and fixed my thoughts on Jesus' love for me.