We are all in need of help. But is it the noun or the verb we need?
Woe is me! How can this be?
Where is that help I have sought?
Nothing but wretched know-it-alls
Come to disturb my thought – and my peace.
Peace? What peace?
What am I saying? Who am I trying to kid?
If this is peace then give me war
And I shall rest and sleep and snore.
Time passed on and matters grew worse.
I soon lost all that I had.
My friends had gone their merry old ways,
My family too was gone.
My business failed, uncertainty prevailed;
I slowly began to wrestle with myself
For a change.
What’s this? A knock? A tiny knock?
I haven’t had a knock since that beggar came by!
I wonder who it might be?
Eh? A whimper? A sniffing? A sobbing?
More trouble! Add fuel to the fire!
Is there no rest for the wicked?!
I opened the door and there stood a boy,
One hand over his eyes and one on his knee,
From where trickled blood to my doorstep!
Sir! the lad cried with tear-stained face,
I stumbled and fell just in front of your place.
I have nobody to help me.
Are you a doctor or someone to bind my wound?
Angered at first at the gory mess,
I nearly chased him away.
But though I knew I was only a laborer,
He had flattered me with his question.
Fancy me a doctor!?
“Lad, you have saved your knee,” I thought.
“Oh, very well, come in, come in.
We’ll see what to do with your wound.”
I bound up his leg and sent him away,
Not as friendly as I could have been.
But after all he was a bit of a nuisance
And I did give him some sweets to cheer him.
As I cleaned off my step
I began to think that
Though I was but a common fellow,
Yet he took my help (there was nobody else),
And he went away for the better.
And how was it I helped that little pest?
There was a time I wouldn’t be bothered!
Am I changing somehow or am I going mad?
I actually did him a favor – without charge.
It’s plain to see that though he is hard,
A change is slowly transpiring
A little more time mingled with hope;
Perhaps from evil he is tiring.
These were the words of the Sovereign King
As He spoke to His servant, the boy.
“You were sent to bring good news
And I thank you for your sacrifice.”
Lethbridge, 1984
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“Beware of false prophets. You shall know them by their fruits” said Jesus. Eggs are fruits, are they not? And many seem to assume that because there are eggs, there is truth. Eggs are neither good nor bad in themselves. What kind are they? Smiles and friendship are neither good nor bad. Why are they? Religious talk praising and extolling God is nothing in itself. So then one must have discernment to tell good fruits from bad. That discernment is the gift of God given only to those who have a love of the truth, selling all they have to possess it, even their very lives. The pilgrim on the path to truth is sorely tried and only the true seeker will enter in to that which is behind the veil. With a marvelous thought I awoke: Both serpents and birds lay eggs! Men do not; Mammals generally do not But those both beneath and above do! Many search for fruits And are deceived, In foolish assumption That that which lays eggs flies And they follow the layer Not into the skies But into a hole in the ground. They follow the layer, Not to be raised up above But to be bitten and devoured. Therefore, my friend, Beware of the fruits, What kind they are. And if you are my friend, You’ll have the eyes to see And the heart to understand. Lethbridge, Oct. 1, 1984