[Faith-talk] Good Night Message for Thursday, August 9 2012

[Paul]

Hello and good evening to all those residing in North America, good Friday morning to all of you residing in the UK or in Europe, and good afternoon to all of you who live in Australia and New Zealand.  I hope that, for us in North America at least, that you all had a good day today and that those of you residing in other parts of the world are having a good day.

Our words of inspiration for this time around come from the pen and voice (Unfortunately I can't attach an audio appendage to this email.) of Albert Albertson of Hot Springs Arkansas.  His contribution is entitled "If," and it's not the same as the more famous poem written by Rudyard Kipling.  Anyway Brother Albert's poem is rendered as follows:

If I could rid the world of greed
And put love in its place,
If I could wipe away the tears
>From every saddened face,
If I could sweep all sorrow out
And in each heart make room
To bring enough of sunshine in
To chase away all gloom,
I'd be happier then by far
Then a president or king.
But God did not give me the power
To bring about this thing.

But If I do my living best
And have the help of you,
The ones we touch may do as much,
And the ones they touch may too.
It might just be the thing would grow
And if we work for all we're worth,
And do a mighty lot to bring
Us heaven here on earth.

When I originally heard those words more than 40 years ago, I thought in my then naieve way that those words sounded nice.  But, examining this piece of Brother Albert's poetry now in the context of all the groups and individuals that receive these good night messages, I am struck by the solidarity that we have with our loving God and with each other.  Before I close this paragraph, may I make a suggestion to all my readers.  Please place your cursor at the beginning of this poem and, as you listen to it read on your screen readers, imagine all of us in a big circle holding hands as the words come forth.  I've done that, and the tears just couldn't stop flowing from my eyes.  Perhaps I'm crazy or something, but I so much want to meet and greet many of you, if not in person, then perhaps individually via phone, as I don't have Skype yet.  And no, I won't bite anybody's head off.  After all, I don't like the taste of human hair, let alone animal hair.  Anyway it's just a suggestion.  So, if any of you are courageous enough to do this, please give me in a private email your phone number and the best time to call.  I can be reached at oilofgladness47 at gmail.com.  Thanks in advance.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, throughout this night or day and especially in these last evil days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul