DOING GOOD...GOING ABOUT.

In Spring, 1967, I was staying in East St. Louis and beginning to work at the Lessie Bates Davis Neighborhood House, 

based on helping the impoverished and gang-struggling people.  It was also supported by the National Methodist Church organization.

When I was in the manager's office, glancing at her desk, there was a small piece of paper under the glass cover.  It said this:

I read in a Book
    That a Man called Christ
        Went about doing good.
It is very disconcerting to me
    That I am so easily satisfied
   with just
           Going
                       About.

For all these years, various times I have had this in a purse, or in a Bible, on a wall, on the fridge.  I have also given it to others.

Until this very moment, I had no idea who had written it.  I put part of the phrases on Google, and found the story of the author.  I was very surprised.

The man who wrote it, Toyohiko Kagawa, was a Japanese Christian pacifist.  He had become a Christian as a young man through Presbyterian missionaries that were teaching him; he was an orphan and they took him into their homes.  He went back and forth between Japan and the States and to a variety of theological colleges.  He chose to live in poverty and he worked however he could to provide for the poor.  He tried to draw more Christians to care for others.  AND he was in prison at least twice while standing up for changing that was needed in Japan.

He wrote more than 150 books and was nominated for both the Nobel Prize in Literature [1947,'48] and the Nobel Peace Prize [1954, '55].

He died in 1960, 7 years before I saw this quote.  And, 45 years later, I finally know who said it.  [The author was  "Anonymous".]

What a surprise and a blessing to know his story and his history.  And he ain't just a poetry-oriented person.  He truly knew what people in many circumstances were forced to walk through... and he wanted to walk with them.

I'm impressed.  I'm touched.  I'm convinced it is going to continue to be one of my main forever-loved proses.

THE ORPHAN ROCK

   

 It looked forlorn
    at road’s edge –
Cut off from its
    fellowship at the cliff.

My heart reached out –
    wanted to shelter it –
        to take it home--

    to make new friends...

   However,
    We have a car –
   not a van
       nor a truck.

There’s no room in the inn.

The dear one
 -- heavy sigh -- 
must remain an orphan.

======================

I wrote this while Dave and I were enjoying a trip in 2002 along the North Shore of Lake Superior.  So many lovely rocks, so many colorful flowery and tree locations.  YES, we have brought lots of rocks home in our trunk, but sometimes the lovely, glorious ones were too big, too heavy.  I'm just blessed over and over that the Lord allows us to travel and see such beauty.  With all of life's intense times of serving the Lord and pouring His love into others, we sometimes need a break.  That area is a true filler-upper of peace and joy and rest.  [And, for me, rocks.]