Worth a Smile

  

 

I have a confession

I will share with you

But you must promise to keep it

Between us two.

 

I passed water in my car

It was quite a bit,

You’d say that was shameful

But wait for it.

 

It was a very long while

I was in traffic,

I took the wrong road home

And couldn’t quit.

 

No turn off less congested,

Not a single one

And the water kept on coming

On and on.

 

 

 

You’d say weak bladder

Or it was full

But you still don’t understand;

You are too dull.

 

I passed water in my car

For a while,

Maybe it’s never happened to you;

It’s not your style.

 

I couldn’t pass it quickly

Traffic was heavy

So, I was forced to do it slowly

And steadily.

 

 

 

Embarrassing, you’d say

But I was alone,

Absolutely no one was with me;

I was on my own.

 

I couldn’t wait to get home

This was a mess,

Had I taken the longer road

It’d be less stress.

 

I passed water in my car

But I had to

And if you were in that traffic,

So would you.

 

 

 

A long line was in front

And a longer one behind

And we all were in that same traffic

A long time.

 

They passed water too

In their vehicle

For they drove along that coast

Like many people.

 

And this you cannot do

Unless you pass water

So, whatever you had in your mind,

Quit your laughter.

 

 

 

Go back to the beginning;

See the word smile?

Along the coast you pass water

Mile after mile.

 

Stewart Russell © March 24, 2026

 

Mindless and Faithless

 

 

Believers need to think

While thinkers need to believe

That every gift that either has

From God, they have received.

 

The function of heart and brain

Is necessary for these two

Since either one without the other

Presents a lopsided view.

 

The world frowns on believers

And opines there are no thinkers there,

How can they actually believe such nonsense

With such reverential fear?

 

In many ways, I dare say,

The world is being vindicated

For many believers jettison their brains

And to men become subjugated.

 

Quoting “the just shall walk by faith”

And using this as an excuse

To exercise their faithfulness of heart

While a functional brain they refuse.

 

No place for thinkers here

For here, thinkers do not belong,

Just exercise their unquestionable faith

And constantly pray to be strong.

 

The other side is just as bad

That pushes all brain and no heart,

Notice despite their myriad PhD’s

The world is noticeably dark.

 

 

Brain dead does not a heart support

Nor the other way around,

One without the other, you must agree,

Will pull a body down.

 

 

Mindlessness pervades the church

While faithlessness, the world,

O for eyes that would open and see,

One without the other is absurd.

 

Come ye apart is not to segregate,

Just like love cannot manifest hate

But for believers to reach out to thinkers

And in the love of Christ relate.

 

To tell the good news of salvation

That thinkers would come to believe

With minds open to Jesus Christ

Who sinners will receive.

 

The Father epitomizes scholarship

He is the only omniscient God,

Without Him there is no science

And this we should applaud.

 

So, while believers need to think

Thinkers need to believe

The message of eternal salvation

And with repentant hearts receive.

Mindlessness in the church

Is like a heart without a brain

And such a situation, I do declare,

Puts a body under strain.

Faithlessness in the world

Is like a brain without a heart,

No wonder there is little compassion

And the world is so dark.

 

“Put on your thinking caps!”

A word to the misguided believer,

And to the thinker, I admonish,

It’s time you were a believer.

 

Stewart Russell © April 22, 2021