Quotables

We've had some good talks the past few weeks at Church. Below are two poems and some excerpts taken from several of the talks. (Speaking of poems, one brother gave his entire talk as a poem. Unique.)

<b>POEM #1<b>

Good Timber
by Douglas Malloch

The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out in the open plain
And always got its share of rain,
Never became a forest king
But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man who never had to toil
To gain and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
But lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow with ease:
The stronger wind, the stronger trees;
The further sky, the greater length;
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.

Where thickest lies the forest growth,
We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
This is the common law of life.

<b>POEM #2<b>

[Title?]
by George Blair

In Nazareth, the narrow road,
That tires the feet and steals the breath,
Passes the place where once abode
The Carpenter of Nazareth.

And up and down the dusty way
The village folk would often wend;
And on the bench, beside Him, lay
Their broken things for Him to mend.

The maiden with the doll she broke,
The woman with the broken chair,
The man with broken plough, or yoke,
Said, "Can you mend it, Carpenter?"

And each received the thing he sought,
In yoke, or plough, or chair, or doll;
The broken thing which each had brought
Returned again a perfect whole.

So, up the hill the long years through,
With heavy step and wistful eye,
The burdened souls their way pursue,
Uttering each the plaintive cry:

"O Carpenter of Nazareth,
This heart, that's broken past repair,
This life, that's shattered nigh to death,
Oh, can You mend them, Carpenter?"

And by His kind and ready hand,
His own sweet life is woven through
Our broken lives, until they stand
A New Creation—"all things new."

"The shattered [substance] of [the] heart,
Desire, ambition, hope, and faith,
Mould Thou into the perfect part,
O, Carpenter of Nazareth!"

<b>EXCERPT #1<b>

"Un-label" your neighbor. Who is my neighbor? The speaker put words to each letter of neighbor (mabe you would make a similar list?)

N - next door neighbor (the one you see daily and often share a drivay or a laundry room or a neighborhood bbq with)

E - everone at the grocery store (even the shopper who forgets about a coupon until after being rung up at the register, or who forgets the wallet in the car)

I - individual who didn't recycle (this would be me, sometimes - but I'm being better about my bottles)

G - guy who cuts you off while you're driving (I'm sure that's <i>never<i> happened to you)

H - "Helen," the co-worker who is always late on projects, or doesn't show when you have something due/to present

B - boy behind you on the airplane kicking your seat (not me, trying tocate you've recline so far as to push my tay table into my stomach...)

O - our family (of course we always get along...)

R - rubberneckers (the people on the opposite side of the freeway who gawk at the unfortunate and significantly alter the traffic flow)

Needless to say, I've been trying to be more patient in my driving.

<b>EXCERPT #2<b>

Explorers have long since sought for the Fountain of Youth. We should instead seek for Truth:

"The search for the Fountain of Truth begins at the doors of the temple."

Happy Monday morning!

Jeremy L. Erb
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