Skip to main content

On Poetry

“The time has come…the walrus said to speak of many things, of ships, and shoes, and ceiling wax and whether pigs have wings.” I have no mustache, so I cannot be a walrus. Pretty good reasoning, eh? Also my knowledge is limited to a limited number of ships. I had better start over.

In Xanadu did Kubla Khana stately pleasure dome decree” pretty, but nonsense. “There are strange things done in the midnight sun…” there are strange things done everywhere. “I met a traveler from an antique land by the men who moil for gold.” I meet one at least once a week.

I have always loved poetry from Ogden Nash to Tennyson, even when the poetry doesn’t say anything of substance. Here is a stanza from the “Love of God” by Frederick Lehman. It was sung at our wedding fifty-five years ago.

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

And one of 17 stanzas from “The Sands of Time are Sinking,” from Samuel Rutherford’s letters put into verse by Anne Cousin,

The bride eyes not her garment
But her dear bridegroom’s face
I will not gaze at glory
But on my king of grace
Not on the crown He giveth
But on his pierced hand
The lamb is all the glory
In Emmanuel’s land

And from Charles Wesley’s “And Can it Be,”

Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast-bound in sin and nature’s might;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray.
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free;
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

Then there is the great Christmas-Easter hymn in Philippians 2:5-11,

Your attitude should be the same as that
of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature
God, did not consider equality with God
something to be grasped, but made
himself nothing, taking the very nature of
a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
He humbled himself and became obedient
To death—even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest
Place and gave him the name that is above
Every name, that at the name of Jesus
Every knee should bow, in heaven and on
Earth and under the earth, and every
Tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
To the glory of God the Father.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why Is Obedience So Hard?

There are several reasons why obedience seems hard. I will comment on some of them and then speak positively on how obedience is easy. We think: 1) Obedience is an infringement on freedom. Since we are free in Christ, and obedience is somehow contrary to that freedom, we conclude that obedience is not good. Yet we know it is good. Thus, we become confused about obedience and are not single-minded. 2) Obedience is works. We who have been justified by grace through faith are opposed to works; therefore, we are opposed to obedience. 3) We have tried to obey and have failed—frequently. Therefore, the only solution is to disobey and later confess to receive forgiveness. It is easier to be forgiven by grace than to obey by effort. 4) We confuse obedience to men with obedience to God. Although these are sometimes one and the same (see Romans 13, 1 Peter 2-3, Ephesians 5-6, Colossians 3, and Titus 2), sometimes they are not the same (see Colossians 2:20-23, Mark 7, 1 Timothy 4:1-5, a

Getting Old

This is a post for those who are getting old or considering themselves old, from 65-100. Right now, I am 91.* I will be 92 in October. I have my own house, but I cannot live in it alone because of my physical inability to move around. One of my sons lives with me. All of us will have to make some adjustments. That includes money, relatives, your own ability and willpower to stay independent, etc. My advice is if physically and financially you can live independently, you should certainly do that. If you do, you will still need to have visits from your family frequently. You need your family. Even if you don’t need them to take care of you, you need them for the fellowship. The more fellowship you have, the longer you’ll live. If you can stay independent do it, but only if friends and relatives can see you often. In my case, I can’t walk, and I can’t do much physically. So, whether I like it or not, someone else has to get me up, get me showered, and get me dressed. I am blessed to have

Three Types of People Christians Aren't Loving

There are three types of people in the world that Christians do not love with the Gospel . The first type are the people we witness to but do not love. The second type are the unbelievers that we do not witness to. The third are people we love but do not witness to. That sounds like doubletalk. Let’s change it. 1) We witness to people we love. 2) We love everybody and witness to them with love. As Christians, we have the fruit of the Spirit—love. We are commanded to love our neighbors and our enemies. The first thing is to have the love. The second is to choose to love our neighbors and enemies. Sometimes we can’t make the choice because we have lost the fruit of the Spirit, love. We lack the fruit of the Spirit of love because we are under the chastening of the Lord because of unconfessed sin. In order to get the love back, we must confess sin. Once we get the love back, we can choose to love our neighbors and enemies and preach the gospel to them.   Written December 22,