Why Do We Blame God

Why do we blame God

For suffering and the like

And praise ourselves

When things go right?

Why do we blame God

For things he does not do

When most assuredly

Our view is skewed?

Why do we blame God

For our ups and our downs

Well as a matter of fact

The downs, not the ups?

Why do we blame God

For not answering our prayers

When in our everyday life

We don’t want Him in our affairs?

Why do we blame God

When storms strike others

But when we are spared

We praise another?

Why do we blame God

For our own way mistakes

And wonder why he didn’t stop us

Before it was too late?

Why do we blame God

For the leadership we choose

And when it doesn’t work out

We are none too enthused?

Why do we blame God

For causing disaster

When we follow the dictates

Of the devil, our master?

Why do we blame God

For the peril of our world

Instead of our fore-parents

As recorded in His Word?

Why do we blame God

For the violence in our schools

When praying and Bible reading

Have been struck from the rules?

Why do we blame God

For not stepping in

When we absolutely refuse

To acknowledge we have sinned?

Why do we blame God

For the death of a loved one

As though at some point

We too will not be gone?

Why do we blame God

When our plans miserably fail

When all the warnings He gave us

Were to no avail?

Why do we blame God

When we ignore Him

And then fall by our own weight

On account of our sin?

Why do we blame God

And at Him scream

When we lose the finals match

To the other team?

Why do we blame God

When we pray for opposite things

And another’s prayer is answered

And we get nothing?

Why do we blame God

And say down here is like hell

But of God’s goodness

We won’t a single person tell?

Why do we blame God

When He doesn’t even exist

As expressed daily

By atheists and scientists?

  

Why do we blame God

For our past and present plight

When we defiantly decide

To do wrong instead of right?

Why do we blame God

When we reject His word

And openly ridicule it

As being outdated and absurd?

Why do we blame God

When all He does is good

Even to the sacrificing of His Son

Who for our sins shed his blood?

Why do we blame God

As though the devil doesn’t exist

When in truth and in fact

He is the one we should resist?

Why should you blame God

When another word He sends

And when it comes to you

In the form of this poem?

Stewart Russell © September 2019

Can You Dig It?

If I send you for the left shoe

And you bring the left shoe,

Wouldn’t that be the right shoe?

But if I send you for the left shoe

And you bring the right shoe

Then that would be the wrong shoe.

You see the wrong shoe is the right shoe

And the right shoe is the wrong shoe,

A sure case of when wrong is right.

It is like driving in Barbados:

To drive on the left is to be right

There is a possible case of being left dead

If you are on the right.

Why do people sit on a collapsible chair?

Isn’t that reason enough not to sit on it?

Funny enough they are never marked.

If the house burns down

You may have saved some stuff

But if it burns up nothing might be saved.

  

It is said that…

The bottom line is that if you work hard

You would likely reach the top.

However, if you don’t

Your top will be someone’s bottom.

If I ask you if the answer is “no” and you say “yes”

Then your “no” is the same as “yes”,

It means for once I can trust your word.

To dig a hole one starts from the top

But to get out of it he starts from the bottom.

If there is no top there is no bottom.

He told the truth when he said he lied

But he lied when he said he told the truth.

Don’t you worry; I have the proof.

People living near a cemetery

 Are never buried therein

But then again neither are those dying elsewhere.

He was standing at the front of the church

But the evidence was inadmissible.

As to whether he was inside or outside

Either of the two was probable.

  

If one is coming back now

It would have to be now he is coming back.

So chances are, he will arrive later.

  

If nowhere is no place

Then how is it possible to get there?

And more particularly to get there by doing nothing.

There’s one thing I cannot do when I am sleeping.

That is to wake up.

Yet, that is the very thing I am expected to do.

  

I am especially concerned

When I am not concerned

Since not to be concerned

Gives me a very good reason to be concerned.

Is it possible to do the impossible

When the impossible is not possible?

Yes, only if the impossible is possible

Then God can.

If you get something done

Then it is clear to me you haven’t done it

Since if somebody did it for you

You could not have done it too.

  

The dead know nothing and we don’t.

If that is true

Then the dead knows something that we don’t.

If the dead knows something that we don’t

Then to know what the dead knows that we don’t

We must die.

Is it worth it?

Knowing nothing, I mean.

If a problem is a problem before it is solved

What is it after it is solved?

No problem.

If a soldier steps off on the wrong foot

And that is the right foot

Then quite obviously

His left foot would be his right foot.

If his left foot and his right foot

Are one and the same,

Then it logically follows

That he must be a one-foot soldier.

  

The child was punished for being wrong

Yet he was the right child all along.

It was discovered after he was pointed out

That he was, in fact, the right child.

What is the opposite of an “open-hole”?

I guess you would say a closed-hole.

But could that be correct?

How could it be a hole if it is closed?

I will finish at this point

And I trust you see the point

For if in fact you haven’t seen the point

Then I would not have made a point.

Stewart Russell © May 2019

When Did Wrong Become Right?

 

In the equation seven plus three equals eleven

Eleven appears somewhat strong,

If you said eleven is wrong then you are right,

Seven plus three equals eleven is wrong.

Somewhere in that verse are right and wrong,

Actually there are two wrongs and a right,

“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” someone once said

But these days the wrong definitely takes the limelight.

There was a time when this issue was clear

Certainly far clearer than it is today

But with the advent of the intellectual

Alternative facts are now holding sway.

The recipe for confusion is now in our hands

Particularly if you went to university

And what is worse at this particular time

Are the many scholars with a (Ph.D.).

There was a time when a Ph.D. was scarce

But today there’re like the summer rain

And the more academic our scholars become

The more they are inclined to be insane.

Our legislators are learned men

Mostly elected by the majority vote

Such that “The majority rules is a fallacy”

A clearer look would suggest that is a misquote.

The majority rules in the election

For therein is the stamp of a democracy

But thereafter democracy goes into hibernation

And policy is determined by a minority.

 

And not all of the elected have the same weight

For some are more equal than some,

It all depends on which side they sit

Whether the losing side or the side that won.

Just a few determine what’s right and wrong,

They determine the laws of the land

And depending on what side they woke up on

It could go right or wrong on the other hand.
 

Right’s bookmark is oft repudiated

And a strong stance is taken for the wrong,

The Bible is deemed archaic and outmoded

And replaced by the wrong and strong.

When did wrong become right?

The matter of the fact is that it never did

But the academics of our time and age

Have from our view the Bible hid.

“It’s a book of myths and legends,” they opine

Full of fairy tales and amusing fables,

Read it as you would any another book

But do not be misled by its so-called miracles.

When did wrong become right?

From the day that Adam and Eve had sinned,

That was the origin the Bible explains,

The question “Hath God said?” is the place to begin.

Back then the right was as clear as clear can be

But wrong intruded and blurred the lines

Then wrong appeared right and Eve was confused

And so to the wrong she was inclined.

From that moment wrong had an advantage

Exacerbated by the nature of man

Who was inclined to formulate his own idea of right

Even if it conflicted with God’s sovereign plan.

From then till now it has really mushroomed

Leaving us bewildered in its wake

Faced with the question we have in this poem

When so much in this life is at stake.

The ayes have it; that’s the way it pans out

A lot of talk of not much content,

The question is posed and the vote is called

And wrong becomes right as the original intent.

Two men: the right to form a family

With the right to raise someone’s child

Two women: the right to a marital union

With all of its conjugal ramifications applied.

“When did wrong become right?” I ask again,

When did we become so deluded?

At sensitivity’s death and at conscience demise

When all that used to be right was openly disputed.

When we got to know better or so we thought,

When accumulated knowledge got to our head,

When winning a seat made us brighter than most

And we exchanged our humanity for divinity instead.

When university became an end in itself

And its graduates strutted around as having reached,

That moment when a little knowledge makes one mad

And basic commonsense was totally breached.

 

When children took over and parents stepped back,

When anarchy presided in the home,

When teachers appeared powerless to stem the tide

And schools became a veritable war zone.

When the church flirted with a confused world

Convinced that the grass was greener that side

And its leaders like politicians suddenly arrived

Raking in millions while some members merely survive.

“When did wrong become right?” I reiterate,

When sympathy and empathy gave way to greed,

When a people that once regarded God

Become like in Noah’s day a despicable breed.

Is there a chance of there being any hope?

Not if we continue on this precipitous slope,

For wrong seen as right is worse than dope

And once blind leads blind all will continue to grope.

Return to God’s instruction and evil eschew

Stop following the multitude who after wrong pursue

God’s instruction manual is available to you

Let it fix your eyes and correct your view

Then the eyes would have it; the correct view that is

Of wrong and right from God’s own view,

In this world of the blind your vision will be clear

And you’ll walk in the light of what you once knew.

“When did wrong become right?” the sixth time I ask

Though the question implies a misnomer,

The only wrong that was right is in your mind

It’s time to stop and let God take over.

Stewart Russell © 2017