I ran across this poem this morning. It really touched my heart and really hit home with me.
“Man” -a poem by Pentecostal Pioneer John Baptist Thomas, former missionary to Iraq and founder of the First Pentecostal Church of New Orleans.
If every day a man should labor
From childhood till he’s old,
What would it profit tho he gained the world,
If at last he lost his soul?
Man is like a little flower
With glory for a time,
Then he sees the shining sickle
And hears the death bells chime.
The doors are closed, the windows dark,
The sound of grinding is low.
It matters not how strong he is,
His time has come to go.
And ere the silver card is loosed,
Oh mortal fading fame,
The dust to earth, The spirit returns
To God from where it came.
John Baptist Thomas
Baghdad, Iraq
July 12, 1930(...)