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Tuesday Morning Epistles Welcome to "Tuesday Morning"—the first day of the week following Monday. May this Tuesday (and every day this week) be blessed by the Lord. I am always impressed by folk that have an uncanny ability to remember the exact wording of poems and scripture. I was never very good at doing either, but I bow to those who are disciplined in this way. Last week I bumped into a friend at Wal-Mart, and we began chatting about poems we remember hearing as children. (I can't recall what got us talking about such things, but I'm sure it wasn't the price of milk). Unprompted by me, he rattled off the eight stanzas of "The Village Blacksmith," by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I was impressed. It seems that my friend was required to memorize that poem and other classic pieces of literature in grade school, and whenever an opportunity arises, he expounds. Those old country schools did a good job teaching the discipline of memorizing good things. I remembered that my dad used to quote long sections of poetry and prose to his two sons when we were young. And he attended school only through the ninth grade. Think what he could have done if he had finished high school and college! Longfellow admired men who worked hard at hard work, and the "Blacksmith" was a good example. In honor of my friend with a great memory, here is one of the stanzas:
"Toiling, rejoicing, sorrowing,
Onward through life he goes;
Each morning sees some task begin,
Each evening, sees it close;
Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a night's repose."
I wonder how many people reflect on a day's work in this
way? I wonder how many people think about the value of tasks
completed? Solomon asked a good question in Ecclesiastes
3:9: "What does the worker gain from his toil?" Ignoring his
own question, Solomon mused, "I know that there is nothing
better for men than to be happy and do good while they live"
(v. 12). In the attachment I have tried to pick up on a
theme touched upon by Longfellow--"Each morning sees
some task begin, Each evening, sees it close...." Open
it whenever you are ready, and prepare to go to work.
Indeed, "This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice
and be glad in it." And let the work begin.
Tom Barnard
A Senior Encourager
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“This Is the Day….”
have collected one- and two-line quotations for most of my adult life. I started filing them the old-fashioned way—hand-scribbled and placed in a folder I optimistically labeled, “Quotes.” When the folder grew to more than 2 inches thick, I began another folder—and I still labeled it “Quotes.” I now have a file-drawer of “Quotes” folders. When computers connected me to more one-liners than I could ever use in a lifetime, I quit filing therm. Now, of course, there are books of quotes. Recently I purchased a copy of 12,000 Inspirational Quotations, edited and compiled by Frank S. Mead (Federal Street Press). It should serve my needs until the time I turn off my computer for the final time. One quote has intrigued me. I can’t recall when I first discovered it, but it must have been fifty years ago, probably in some sermon I heard. Actually, its roots go back to 1916 when it was cited in print by Henry Kaufman. An edited version appeared in 1922, and it has been updated, altered, and expanded many times since then. The author of the full phrase is unknown, but it has been credited to a variety of writers, including George Bernard Shaw, Hubert Tinley, and Kay Lyons. The version I like best reads as follows:
“Yesterday is a canceled check. Tomorrow is just a
promissory note. Art Rust, Jr.—the well-known sports talk-radio analyst at WABC (New York City)—is remembered for signing off his nightly radio show for many years with the quote. After his wife died in 1986, Rust added a short line to the quote, signing off with “Goodnight, Edna baby.” In November 1983, Dr. Louis L. Sacks, writing in the Boca Raton (FL) News, in a column entitled “Reflections,” added the words, “Only today is ours, and if we procrastinate, we lose, and what we lose is forever.” (Google News Archive) I Googled the word “today” and found this excellent quote attributed to a Maria Robinson: “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” There is mystery attached to “tomorrow,” because—as the writer said—it is a “promissory note.” There are no guarantees. We can’t even guarantee that tomorrow will be ours to spend. Last week I quoted two lines from a gospel song by Howard and Margaret Brown, the last line of which reads, “My tomorrows are all known to Thee; Thou wilt lead me all the way.” And who can forget the lyrics to the southern gospel song by Ira Stanphill, “I Know Who Holds Tomorrow”? Here is the refrain:
Many things about tomorrow, Last week a friend sent me a poem that her mother had mounted on a wall in her home many years ago, and it expressed for me an understanding of the importance of committing our todays and tomorrows to God. “This is the beginning of a new day. God has given me this day to use as I will. I will waste it or use it for good. But what I do today is important, because I am exchanging a day of my life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever, leaving in its place something that I have traded for it. I want it to be gain, not loss; good and not evil; success and not failure; in order that I shall not regret the price I have paid for it.” Perhaps that is what the psalmist meant when he wrote in Psalm 118:24, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” |