Christmas Cheer

In the land of the free, our freedoms are dying.
Each night on the news our leaders are lying.
They claim it was others who made things go sour,
But they’ll make everything better with a little more power.

They in their wisdom will redistribute your wealth,
And apply that same wisdom to care for your health.
They think that you are too dumb to make do,
So the “all knowing” government will do it for you.

If you worship at the foot of the government shrine,
You may well believe things are working out fine.
But even our country, the best the earth offers,
Is running on empty with no funds in its coffers.

The Bible says it’s truth that makes you free.
The Lord says you’ll have power, “when you follow Me.”
He says all of our wealth comes from His hand
And even bad leaders get used in His plan.

We, the people of earth did not evolve
And our biggest problem is one we can’t solve.
We’ve denied our Creator and followed a lie
And because of this sin, we’re all “gonna” die.

The reality is we’re dead from our birth
And have to find life during our time on the earth.
He came and died so that we all can live.
What we do is believe. What He does is give.

Wichita, 12/19/09
JCS

Sad and Lonely

I got to thinking I should write a sad poem. To do that I had to be sad, so I tried to imagine a really sad situation. This was pretty fanciful for a twenty-six year old…

Each day is like forever,
I’m sad and all alone.
The girl who said she’d never
Leave me, now is gone.

We shared a joy together
Few couples ever know.
Our love, we knew could weather,
Any winds a storm could blow.

Little did we realize then,
As we promised not to part,
That coming was the time when
She would break my heart.

She left me though I begged her,
Not to leave me all alone.
It’s small and little wonder
That my soul let out a moan.

Now that I’m without her love,
Nothing can lift me from this gloom.
If there’s a loving God above,
He’s not present in this room.

You say we had a long affair,
And all affairs must end.
I say it isn’t at all fair
That my broken heart won’t mend.

Fifty years is not a long time.
It passed just like a day.
But one day seems like eternal time
Since my wife has gone away.

There is one comfort I can see,
That keeps the walls from closing in.
Since she has died ahead of me,
She’s not in the state I’m in.

JCS
June 24, 1974

Climate Change

It really begins to make me sore
To hear more blather from Al Gore.
He claims the planet will soon be toast
With the oceans flooding every coast.

All this he says will soon come true
Because we breathe out C O 2.
He’s more concerned that a few bears might die
Than for the people killed by the tsetse fly.

How arrogant to think that man,
Has the power to defeat the Creator’s plan.
The Bible says He holds all things together,
And is in complete control of all Earth’s weather.

While it’s true we should avoid pollution
I don’t agree with Al’s solution.
All these plans for Cap and Trade
Are nothing more than a taxation raid.

A raid to destroy our nation’s financial health.
A raid of our grandchildren’s wealth.
They no longer have wealth to share,
They’ll have to pay for Obamacare.

December 2009
JCS

Generations: A Father’s View

This was my first poem if you don’t count school exercises. (I don’t.) I didn’t plan to write a poem. I seldom do. Shirley was working in the Pioneer Girls Club at church and I walked into the church nursery to check on our baby who was sleeping there. Amy was five months old and I was (I still am) overwhelmed by the wonder of being a father as I looked down on her. The next thing I knew I’d thought out the first few lines of the poem below and found some paper and started writing.

As she lies there and looks up with her precious smile,
I sit and smile back and wonder all the while.
Will she ever understand the love that I feel?
A love from my heart. A love that is real.

She’s the result of a true love expressed.
With my wife and me, it’s love at its best.
My two girls were sent to me from above,
They’re gifts from the author of what we call love.

I wonder if my daughter will ever realize,
The love that I feel when I look into her eyes.
But then I think back to when my life began,
I think of my parents and then I understand.

When my little daughter becomes a woman
And she finds the guy for her in God’s plan.
When she and her husband have a child they love so,
Then as she looks at her baby, she’ll know. She’ll know!

November, 1972
JCS

Little Girls

It was May of 2001. Shirley and I were getting ready to leave for Manila for a six month assignment. We had just visited our three grandchildren in Wichita a few weeks before for their birthdays. Wesley was two and his cousin Hope and her twin sister Sydney had just turned one a day later. (Of course we visited their parents too.) We planned to be back from Asia in time for Christmas…

Our little girls are women now!
But how can this be so?
They were precious little girls,
And it wasn’t long ago.

I’d watch them with their little stove,
Pretending they could cook.
Or one would sit beside me
And help me read my book.

Shirley’s on the phone with Amy,
I can hardly wait to hear.
We were there a few weeks ago,
But it feels more like a year.

It seems that Hope is walking,
And Sydney climbs the stairs.
Do they know their grandpa’s proud of them,
And how much their grandma cares?

How can it be so long ‘til Christmas
When we’ll see them again?
Why it was only yesterday,
Their mother was just ten.

War and Peace

I used to live peacefully
Without conflict within.
There was no warfare.
I was in bondage to sin.

It’s not that I liked it.
I longed to be free.
But there was no battle.
I had chains holding me.

But freedom has a price,
It’s never been free.
My freedom was purchased
When Christ died for me.

It may sound like a trade,
Me free and Christ dead,
But He rose from the grave
And crushed Satan’s head.

It’s not peace to stop fighting,
If it means giving in.
You can be free from fighting
While in slavery to sin.

The peace that I have now,
Is peace Jesus can bring
Because He defeated the enemy
And is truly the King.

Peace can’t be achieved
Without winning the war.
But I’m not a combatant,
That’s not my chore.

My job is to trust in and
Serve the true King.
So I’ll rest in His victory
And His praises I sing.

JCS
7/6/09

Wesley James

We now have seven grandchildren and we live in the same city as they do. It was not always so. Wesley is our oldest and we were planning a trip to visit when I wrote this:

Folks brag about grandchildren,
They recite all their names.
And I don’t keep quiet,
I tell about Wesley James.

His parents, they love him.
They’re treating him fine.
But he needs to know Grandpa,
This grandson of mine.

Who’s gonna sit with him
And read him a book?
Who’s gonna show him
Each cranny and nook?

Wesley’s Grandma and I
Will come visit soon.
I’ll take him outside to
See the man in the moon.

Grandma will give him
Kisses and hugs.
Grandpa will help him
Identify bugs.

We’ll read good books,
Don’t worry ‘bout that.
Like, Green Eggs and Ham
And Cat in The Hat.

JCS Feb. ‘00

Strong Finish

Background: The Executive Pastor at my church just lost his mother, who had lived a rich and full life of faith. I was given the honor of submitting a few words for her graveside service. Just last night I heard her testimony (a written one she left) that she had relied on the Holy Spirit to sustain her and empower her after being widowed many years ago. The strength and power of a spirit filled life were on my mind and heart as I wrote.

Strong Finish

We come together to lay to rest,
A saint who ranks among the best.
This not because of things she’d do
But because of her deep faith in You.

People said she was very strong
But she would have said they’re wrong.
Human strength she didn’t claim
But rested on the Master’s name.

So we cheer the finish of her race
Knowing she rests before Your face.
We ask that our own faith will not diminish,
But like her, we’ll continue to the finish.

JCS
November 23, 2009

Nine to Ninety

Background: If I changed the years to reflect the thirty-one more that have passed, the poem would be true today.

Nine to Ninety

The years have come, the years have gone,
And now they number nine.
Since that night, not long ago,
I asked you to be mine.

I hope you know the joy you’ve given
To me in nine short years,
Is greater far in time and power
Than any sweat or tears.

To put in words or rhyme or verse,
The love I have for you,
Is a task that any writer, poet or sage
Would be inadequate to do.

Yet still I sit here writing verse
Hoping it will convey,
A portion of the love and joy
You give to me each day.

I pray that I’ll be able to be
The husband I should be,
And give to you even greater joy,
Than the joy you’ve given me.

JCS
6 June, 1978

Lessons to Learn

Background:
From 1996 until we left Wycliffe Bible Translators to work in the Wycliffe Foundation, I had the great privilege to serve directing Project Funding. This meant that my department was the link in the chain that connected the folks at home giving toward Bible translation to the members in the field who were actually doing the Bible translation and spending the money. Just like Egypt during Joseph’s service, we had some years of plenty and some years of want. Oh, it was so easy to pat ourselves on the back in those years of plenty—after all we must have been doing everything right but then when the years of want came, we would fall on our knees in prayers of soul searching. Did we have this right? Did we have it backwards? Or something else?

Lessons to Learn

He owns the cattle on a thousand hills!
That’s hard to remember when it’s time to pay bills.
We say, “Trust in the Lord & He’ll show the way.”
But why would He bother if we don’t even pray.

God answers prayer. I know that it’s true.
But if He wants to know something, He won’t ask you.
He won’t ask me either, not once and not twice.
To make up His mind, He needs no advice.

So why do we bother to get our facts straight
And give Him our argument and impatiently wait?
We wait for His answer but we must confess,
We give Him a deadline and demand a big, “Yes.”

But what if our wisdom and all that we’ve planned
Is not what He chooses to work with His hand?
What if the lesson is not that He’s able,
But has more to do with a babe in a stable?

They wanted a leader to come with great power.
They wanted their oppressors to shrink and to cower.
They figured their hopes and dreams were a loss
When their hoped for deliverer hung dead on the cross.

So maybe the funding we’re so proud to send out,
Is not what this walk of faith is about.
If we can praise God and sing to His glory,
We ought to sing praises as we tell the fields, “Sorry.”

So let’s pray petitions and make confessions,
And ask God to help us learn the right lessons.
God’s not our servant, but He gives us all that we need,
When we finally learn how to follow His lead.

JCS
Orlando, Florida
10 October, 2002