Poised Between Two Choices [a poem]

here I stand
laden with your gifts
for you have given me
every good and needful thing
that I might live for you.

here I stand
the world beneath my feet
poised between two choices:
a life of privilege or of service?
a life of pleasure or of love?

here I stand
high upon a mountain-top
while a slick tongue whispers
“you have worked hard,
you deserve it,
a little bit more won’t hurt,
live it up,
why not?

Jump, and you’ll not be hurt
Eat, and you’ll not grow fat
Take, and you’ll not be tainted,
for all these lovely things
I give you now,
if you’ll worship me.”

Here I stand
poised between two choices
to consume your gifts like cotton-candy
with which to line my empty soul
or,
cherish life like precious manna,
bread which must be shared
among my fellow beggars
lest
it turns to dust.

by Kristin Jack, who lived with his family for 17 years in Cambodia. From his book Poetry and Prophecy