# \.\.\.Ready for either or both\!

Language: en  
Author: Poem by Matthew Kauffman  
Original issue: The Heartbeat of The Remnant, April/May/June 2009, Number 2  
Source pages: 36  
Read article: <https://remnant.truechristian.church/en/poetry/ready-for-either-or-both/>
Original PDF: 2009\-2Q\-Remnant\.pdf
[The Heartbeat of The Remnant, April/May/June 2009](<https://remnant.truechristian.church/en/issues/heartbeat-remnant-2009-04/>)

![A cow beside stones and wood beneath three columns of printed verse](<https://remnant.truechristian.church/images/articles/bddf62b1-cf16-40ec-b5e9-6bd42a5127b7-1.jpg>)

My life was always full of ease,  
 I ate and slept in summer’s breeze\.  
 My parents, too, and other kin  
 Have healthy, full, e’ensated been\.

Our only purpose we have known  
 To find more grass; we’re ne’er alone,  
 We live in welcome company  
 Of all our friends and family\.

When enemies or pests accost  
 No time or energy is lost\.  
 We huddle round or side by side  
 Defense for all the group provides\.

Such close companionship is sweet  
 Our needs the streams and pastures meet  
 But lately I have heard the Call  
 That’s constant, clear, and goes for all\.

Just yesterday I gazed awhile  
 Across the fields for many miles  
 The wide expanse lies fallow, bare\.  
 It’s barrenness yields only tares\.

And yon by Master’s tools, I see  
 An instrument, it seems to me  
 Whence all that sod would break and turn  
 Potential fruits which now are spurned\.

The only lacking part, you see,  
 Which is of dire necessity  
 Is one or two to bear the yoke  
 To pull that plow; it needs my folk\.

But wait\! I see my Master kind;  
 He’s gathering rocks\. I see the signs  
 Of something more I soon will learn  
 Of service true for which He yearns\.

The rocks in order now He lays  
 As tier by tier an altar’s raised\.  
 The wood he brings and all is set\.  
 An offering free is needed yet\.

And deep within myself I hear  
 A witness quiet, first, but clear\.  
 It’s once again a task defined  
 For one like me or of my kind\.

So as I contemplate, my sights  
 Are widened in my Master’s light\.  
 I think I’ve started now to scan  
 The greatness of His perfect plan\.

I yield myself, all Yours to use  
 For labors long my life I’ll lose\.  
 Or may that altar be my place,  
 Aromas round Your throne to raise?

So if for work that bears much fruit,  
 Or off’ring full Your purpose suits,  
 My Lord, if life’s prime morn You’ll spend  
 That altar’s still a welcome end\.

For now, dear Master, these lush fields  
 No lasting satisfaction yield\.  
 How can I love perpetual ease,  
 Till altars burn and fruits increase?

So Lord, I give myself away,  
 For either or for both, I pray\.

## Magazine citation

- [A cow beside stones and wood beneath three columns of printed verse](<https://remnant.truechristian.church/images/articles/bddf62b1-cf16-40ec-b5e9-6bd42a5127b7-1.jpg>): Picture by Dorothy Calhoun