If I Lost the Saviour poem

My friend, Nic, had this on her blog this week.  It's exactly what I needed to hear during this Christmas season...exactly what I needed today!

If I Gained the World

If I gained the world but lost the Saviour,

Were my life worth living for a day?

Could my yearning heart find rest and comfort

In the things that soon must pass away?

If I gained the world, but lost the Saviour,

Would my gain be worth the life-long strife?

Are all earthly pleasures worth comparing

For a moment with a Christ-filled life?

Had I wealth and love in fullest measure,

And a name revered both far and near,

Yet no hope beyond, no harbour waiting

Where my storm-tossed vessel I could steer-

If I gained the world, but lost the Saviour,

Who endured the cross and died for me,

Could then all the world afford a refuge,

Whither in my anguish I might flee?

O what emptiness without the Saviour,

Mid the sins and sorrows here below!

And eternity, how dark without Him-

Only night and tears and endless woe!

What though I might live without the Saviour,

When I come to die, how would it be?

O to face the valley's gloom without Him!

And without Him all eternity!

O the joy of having all in Jesus!

What a balm the broken heart to heal!

Ne're a sin so great but He'll forgive it

Nor a sorrow that He does not feel!

If I have but Jesus, only Jesus,

Nothing else in all the world beside

O then everything is mine in Jesus-

For my needs and more He will provide.

-Anna Olander