Love as Advantage or Sacrifice
Works of Love
In these days we want to count our friends
As if to prove we are successful
So it's all for advantage in the end
With the loss of all that's graceful
But when we live to sacrifice
And love God through loving persons
Advantage takes no part in that device
Through Jesus' story we learn the lesson
He only chose those of insignificance
To take on as apostles
They proved their love in their defiance
In a world that proved quite hostile
Each disciple suffered their pain and cross
Helped each other attain humility
The worldly saw their sacrifice as loss
Because it did not show utility
To participate to make a gain
Is known to all in the world secure
But to those who feel such success is pain
All worldly goods have lost allure
They reach for something in the highest
To serve truth for truth's sake alone
Some will envy them and some detest
Many will cast at them their stones
When we give up those illusions
That others hold to as reality
There is no love in some friend profusion
It's a creature of our venality