Life’s Pursuits

 

 

Some pursue popularity

Some strive for fame

To be popular and or famous

Is to have a great name

 

Some go after money

Some yearn for great wealth

They want to be rich and wealthy

Even at the risk of their health

 

Some want great possessions

Some desire position

Status and power for these

Are their soul ambition

 

Some prefer big families

Some want a big name

Leaving that kind of legacy

Ensures posthumous fame

 

Of course they won’t know

But that matters not,

They will get some idea

Before they leave this spot

 

Some long to discover

Some press hard to innovate,

These are the life pursuits

That will make them great

 

Some want to be doctors

Some want to be teachers

To be known for healing and teaching

Is a phenomenal feature

 

 

Some want to be great actors

Some to be astonishing playwrights

Presenting an alternate reality

Must be their undying delight

 

Some aspire to be magicians

Some the reading of palms

Regarding paranormal activity

They have no qualms

 

Some gravitate to sports

Some to the music industry

In these they’ll make a name

And become world celebrities

 

Some must live in a mansion

Some more than one or two

And wherever they are located

They must have the best view

 

 

Some want to be entertainers

Some to be stand up comics,

They will be quite happy

Once they control the script

 

Some pursue great knowledge

Some the wisdom of the world

Often these particular people

Will even dispute God’s word

 

Some desire universal power

Some even want to be gods

This is their life ambition

Go spread the news abroad

 

 

Some want to be great preachers

Some yearn to own a church

These will have great followings

Leaving many in the lurch

 

Some just want to make it

Some just to get two ends to meet

They stand in awe of the others

And love to be at their feet

 

Something is sadly left out

From all these aspirations

God is conspicuously missing

For each and every equation

 

They will all be total failures

This I can most assuredly add

And at the end of the day

They will all be very sad

  

With God out of the equation

Nothing can be solved

Doesn’t matter how you add it up

You won’t get it resolved

 

Whether scientist or astronomer

Mathematician or philosopher

Without God as the centre

Expect to be a failure

 

Whatever the operation

Be it addition or subtraction

God is the equal sign

That balances every equation

 

Whatever the problem

Without God it’s unsolvable

Doesn’t matter your expertise

You’re still in deep trouble

 

I trust I’ve made the point

To which I remain resolute

There will be no success

Without God in life’s pursuits

 

Stewart Russell © June 2018

 

Come Apart or Fall Apart

 

 

This world is a rat-race

Driven by fierce competition,

Its constituents are obsessed

With personal ambition.

 

Sinner and saint alike

Working twenty-four-seven,

Both trying to make of this world

Their respective heaven.

 

Both putting in the effort

To accumulate great wealth

While both are seemingly unaware

Of their decreasing health.

 

Refusing to come apart

And therefore, falling apart,

Overworking their mortal brain

And stressing out their heart.

 

 

The result, as is expected,

Are numerous strokes

And heart attacks more frequently

In even young folks.

 

Rest is very essential

As well as periodic reflection

And neither is remotely possible

Without intervention.

 

Warning lights are blinking

Alarms are going off

But no letting up coming soon

Until our river is crossed.

 

Evident are the wrecks

Of those that fell apart

Disregarding all the warning signs

That urged to come apart.

 

Even Jesus in his ministry

Took time to come apart

And did the same with his disciples

So they won’t fall apart.

 

 

But we are workaholics

And often we’re proud to be

And while our health goes into decline,

It is never suddenly.

 

Come apart I urge you

Or you will eventually fall apart,

Reflection is a brain activity

Supported by the heart.

 

Mark 6:31

 

And he said unto them,

Come ye yourselves apart

Into a desert place,

And rest a while.

 

Stewart Russell © June 15, 2024

 

Should I Say I Know?

 

 

Should I say, “I know,”

If I’ve a strong belief?

Oh yes, you should

If it brings relief.

 

Job said it, didn’t he

When severely tried?

“I know!” he stated emphatically,

It’s in Job 19:25.

 

Should I say, “I know,”

If it’s in God’s Word?

“I know Messiah comes,” she said,

When she had only heard.

 

The woman at the well

No longer had to hide,

Go yourself and check it out

In John 4 verse 25.

 

Should I say, “I know,”

If I strongly believe?

Of course, you should, my friend,

If from God you’ve received.

 

 

For “I know,” said Paul,

“Whom I have believed,”

As he shared with young Timothy

What he had received.

 

Should I say, “I know,”

When so many doubt?

Martha did, you would recall

And Jesus worked it out.

 

“He will rise,” she said,

In the resurrection,

Like Job, she too had believed,

In this revelation.

 

 

“I am the resurrection

And the life,” Jesus said,

“And he that believes in me

Shall live though dead.”

 

Should I say, “I know?”

Well, tell me why not,

Especially, as I’ve discovered,

God is all we’ve got.

 

Yes, I hear the rebuttal,

And I see it every day

Re those with their millions

Heading the wrong way.

 

They too say, “I know,”

Trusting in their wealth,

But what have they got, I ask,

When they’re facing death?

 

Their “I know” is mute

Unlike Job’s “I know”,

And all the wealth they have,

They still have to go.

 

 

In whom is your “I know”?

It had better be God,

For if it is not with all you’ve got

You have nothing at all.

 

Should I say, “I know,”

If in Christ Jesus I believe?

Oh yes, you should, my friend,

I trust you are relieved.

 

Stewart Russell © August 22, 2024

 

Don’t You Remember?

 

 

Remember when I robbed you

And I took away your wealth

And did it in such a way

That I even ruined your health?

 

I discovered what you discovered

Though you long before I

But you had no documents

And they accepted my lie.

 

At that time, you did not matter

For you were a nobody

And I was seen all around

As somebody.

 

I not only robbed you

But I raped you too

And by severing your family ties

I decimated you.

 

It was so bad

That today you still depend on me

Hoping I would give you back

Your true identity.

 

I took your land

And all the wealth you had

And promised you a better life

If you were not bad.

 

All that I now have

Originally belonged to you,

I pay you out of your own wealth;

That is what I do.

 

I possessed you

And enslaved you

And to this very day

I still shape your view.

 

 

Your call for reparation

Will only fall on deaf ears,

What little conscience I had

Has gone with the years.

 

There is severe infighting;

That is what I see

And this is far more detrimental

Than your fight with me.

 

You can’t stand each other

Whom you daily destroy

As you seek to rise higher

In my employ.

 

Your dreams are short lived

And selfishly inclined,

Though not physically shackled

You are in the mind.

 

Together you can soar

But divided you are sinking

And more than ever I realize

I also took your thinking.

 

No doubt you now remember

But what is your intent?

You daily destroy one another

As though this is your bent.

 

Stewart Russell © August 3, 2022

 

 

Time and Money

 

 

I believe it was a rich man who said

That time is money

Which suggests to me and perhaps to you

If you haven’t time you haven’t any.

 

 I also heard another say

“This will buy you some time!”

And the reference was to money,

Money was on the line.

 

And so, to help one make up his mind

The offer could be money

Because for some, money can buy time

And time therefore is money.

 

 

Quite fallacious, I would say

And I will tell you the reason why,

A rich man may buy all that he wants

But there’s one thing he cannot buy.

 

He can know how much money he has

But he can never know how much time,

And when his time has come to go

He wouldn’t even know a dime.

 

That’s when time’s clock will chime

And he won’t even know when

For at that particular stroke of time

Both his money and time will end.

 

 

 

And so, I pose this question

To the wealthy Elon Musk:

Where will you be, O mighty one,

When your money becomes as rust?

 

 

And to another man I ask,

Meaning the money-favoured Bill Gates,

What sound to you will your billions make

When you are lying in state?

 

 

And how can I leave out the Bezos

Whose Christian name is Jeff?

How will you order your wealthy empire

When your eyes are closed in death?

 

To be able to generate their wealth

The rich will need much time

But when that time has come to an end

They can’t even save a dime.

Here is the major difference, I repeat,

That should permeate one’s mind:

You can know how much money you have

But you cannot know how much time.

 

Stewart Russell © December 7, 2022

 

In Search for Life?

 

I went in search for life

It was my primary goal,

If only I could find the source

I would never grow old.

 

I suspected there was a cost

And that cost was in wealth,

Once I had the money

I could enhance my health.

 

In neither the twain I found it

In neither health nor wealth,

After I had achieved the latter

I spent it all on health.

 

 

I tried all kinds of remedies

To bring back the health I’d lost

But that was frustratingly futile

Despite the astronomical cost.

 

Maybe it was the environment

So that I also changed

Moving to a healthier location

That I had my lawyer arrange.

 

I tried a dose of religion

And experimented with philosophy,

For a while they seemed to work

But life still eluded me.

 

In the medical parlance

If only I could find the switch,

I’d turned off that life-limiting cell

And my dilemma would be fixed.

 

 

But search and search I did

Yet no such cell was found

And still it vexed me sore

That soon I’d not be around.

 

Medical science is preoccupied

With finding the life source

For if only this could happen

That would be an undying force.

 

Then I turned to God’s Word

That before, I had disregarded

And on the pages of Holy Writ

I was soon to be rewarded.

 

I found the source of life

Or better still, he found me,

And anyone who believes on him

Will live eternally.

 

In St John, the eleventh chapter

Jesus makes this clear

He raised the deceased Lazarus

For Jesus, death held no fear.

 

 

 

For he is the Lord of life

And for him death holds no terror,

A search for life in any other

Must be seen as a grave error.

 

So, if you are searching for life

Look no further, I implore,

Draw from the eternal source

Who has unlimited in store.

 

Jesus is that eternal source

And he offers life to you,

Become a branch on the life-giving vine…

Do it before this day is through.

 

Stewart Russell © August 2019

 

Our Trouble Source,

 

 

The source of our trouble

Is a four-letter word

Sometimes expressed as two

Or even one.

 

Sometimes “my” is added-

That’s in its longest form

But regarding the one mostly used,

“I” is the norm.

 

By now you have it:

It is I, Me and Myself,

And we three are about wealth

If it ruins our health.

 

 

 

 

The “I” look for number 1

And number 1 is Me,

Just Me and Myself

And that is all the “I” see.

 

Therein I tell you

Is the source of our trouble,

A myopic view-

Sorry to burst your bubble.

 

I shaded my eyes

And what did I see?

I will be honest with you…

I only saw “Me”.

 

Maybe you were there

And maybe you were not,

But it really doesn’t matter

“Me” is all I have got.

 

 

 

So, I am never short of trouble

As long as I’ve got Me,

It’s Me, Myself and I-

I always have all three.

  

We name the devil

And we give him the blame

But the truth be told,

It is these three that reign.

 

Me, Myself and I:

That’s the source of our trouble,

Not Satan, the devil,

Now I have burst your bubble.

 

He is our cop-out

Since we must blame someone,

“The devil made me do it.”

It is time that was gone.

 

 

Me, Myself and I

Honestly look at yourself!

That’s what I am doing now-

Not at you but Myself.

 

Stewart Russell © October 16, 2020