What really matters ............

what lives inside:
the soul,
endures...
through joy and sorrow,
triumph and loss;
in the end this much
remains:


the love we share,
the faith we follow,
the hope we hold tightly to
as all else about us
passes sadly away.


yet between this world
and the world beyond,
a bridge exists;
suspended by
three-stranded cords
which cannot quickly be broken
no matter the burden or weight.


risk everything
you have here,
every day of your life,
so that one day,
having come to the dreadful crossing,
you also might safely span
that terrible abyss


and enter
with God's own blessing
the everlasting kingdom of heaven.