Philippians 3:19
Earthly Things

Why can’t they understand?
What is it about the earth?
That appeals so much to some people
They can’t see what has real worth.
Is it a passing hunger –
And they think they’re going to die?
To live for what is put in the stomach,
Surely isn’t the reason why
They live lives that are so sensual
With such a selfish attitude –
Epicureanism is so shallow
They have nothing when life is through.

Perhaps there is a deep-seated longing
To know everything just a little bit.
They want to taste the forbidden fruit
Just because they have heard of it.
When that sin has been tried –
They must realize they’ve been deceived.
It may be they wish they had died
When that invitation they received,
Because the results of that choice
Has opened them up to deep grief.
They listened to the tempters voice;
The pleasurable rush was very brief.

Earthly things are passed along
From one unsatisfied person to another.
Misery likes a lot of company
Unhappy people want to gather together
In dark places where it is easy to hide
What is in a sinful heart
And a taste of wrong comes to abide
What they didn’t intend to start –
And the consequences start to take their toll
On what could have been a satisfying life.
What started out full of potential
Now ends in lasting strife.

When one’s mind is set on earthly things
Usually there’s no turning back.
Earthly things cannot satisfy
The fundamentals such things lack.
The heart of man can’t be satisfied
With what I taste and see.
God created us at the first in His image;
He knows what He wants us to be.
To trivialize a life’s potential
By focusing on what earth brings,
Is to waste what one really could be,
On empty cisterns and poisoned springs.

Don’t be deceived, there is a better way
God has intended for you.
Stop and listen to what He says
And you will learn before you are through
That what makes a person fulfilled,
And meaning in life can give –
Comes not from surrounding earthly things
But from God who can make you live
In harmony with God and all His creation
For He can satisfy the total person
When one receives His great salvation.