"Guidance"

Jonah went to Nineveh reluctantly, but he went. George MacDonald, the great Chrsitian poet and mystic, expresses beautifully the reluctance so many Christians still feel about serving God in an unfavorable environment.

I said: "Let me walk in the fields."
He said: "No walk in the town."
I said: "There are no flowers there."
He said: "No flowers, but a crown."

I said: "But the skies are black;
There is nothing but noise and din."
And He wept as He sent me back -
"There is more," He said: "There is sin."

I said: "But the air is thick
And fogs are veiling the sun."
He answered: "Yet souls are sick
And souls in the dark undone."

I said: "I shall miss the light,
And friends will miss me, they say."
He answered: "Choose tonight
If I am to miss you, or they."

I pleaded for time to be given;
He said: "Is it hard to decide?
It will not seem so hard in heaven
To have followed the steps of your Guide."

Then into His hand went mine,
And into my heart came He;
And I walk in a light divine
The path I had feared to see.