In Paradise

My God, why are You so far from me?
I can't hear Your heart pulse soft through mine.
Though many say I'm much like You
I cant feel Your presence most of the time.

I languish, struggling to wheather out
My parched and thirsty times of drought,
To rise above my hindering doubts
And enter Paradise.

I cannot see Your glory, Lord.
My soul has turned to stone within,
Your image fading from my heart
It's form replaced by self and sin.

So many seem to sing and shout
Without a sigh or tear or doubt.
While I, alone, seem lost in drought
They sing in Paradise.

I'm whithering without hope, my God--
I don't feel holy or so grand.
My eyes gaze sightless at your cross
My fingers slipping from Your hand.

My flickering flame is going out
Scorched through and through by cruel drought
And stifled by my many doubts
So far from Paradise.

At last the tears that seemed quite gone,
The dried up fountains gushing forth
O'erspread the barren wilderness
And bubble,ushering in new birth.

And Your own power lifts me out
Of weakening times of whithering drought
And bears me past my sinful doubts
To sing in Paradise.