Second Chances

For any of my readers who might have wondered, I write most of my poetry longhand in small leather-bound books that are just the right size to fit in my pocket. Along with poetry, I also take notes, make lists and fill the pages with all manner of jotting, doodling, etc., including card game scores, Christmas lists and movie times. Thus, these books each represent a snapshot of my life at any given moment. A little over five years ago I inadvertently left one such book in my trouser pocket and it went through the washing machine. Needless to say it ended up fairly mangled. However, I salvaged it as well as possible and laid it up on a shelf to dry. Low and behold, I rediscovered that little book this past weekend and also discovered that it was a time capsule from the most difficult period of my entire life. Back in the end of 2001 we learned, rather abruptly, that I had serious heart disease and I was thrust into some very frightening hospital stays which resulted in two rounds of angioplasty. Since I was just over forty, even the doctors were surprised by my condition and we had to make a lot of emotional adjustment to some shocking medical realities. By the way, I’m much better now so I will digress no farther on that part of the story. At the same time, my father was being diagnosed and treated for what turned out to be a life-ending condition and my brother was going through a difficult divorce. Needless to say, my little book of notes, poetry and commentary captured that period in my life with several months in either direction for perspective. How strange it has been during recent days to pry the mangled pages apart and attempt to decipher the events and meaning from that stage in my life. Which brings us to today’s poem.

I know it’s March so I beg you forgive me for offering a poem today which is entitled, “What I got For Christmas.” This is a poem about second chances and the perspective which comes from facing life-threatening issues. It also serves as a reminder that we have no guarantees in life. In fact, we’re all terminal … some folks just have a lot more time than others. Most of us tend to live life like we’ll definitely make it to a ripe old age, and most people do. The problem is that none of us can be sure who might turn out to be an actuarial anomaly. The important point here is that when we find ourselves thrust into such dreadful situations most of the details of life that take up so much of our energy suddenly matter very little, while faith, family and friends come rushing to the forefront of our priorities. On the faith front, let me just say that only a saving faith can provide eternal fire insurance. For more on that aspect of my commentary, I encourage you to Google my other poem, “Brimstones and Chicken Bones.” Please don’t wait until you’re sick to tell your spouse and children how you feel about them. Then set out to prove it every day. The same goes for friends and extended family.

Clearly, I’m a big fan of second chances. However, when you get one it reminds you that not everyone does, so we need to live our lives in such a way as to have no regrets. Get it right with your family, do your business with God and be thankful for each day as it comes. Again, I apologize for using a poem with Christmas in the title during the spring, but this message found me and I felt compelled to share it at this time. Have a wonderful day … and make it count.

What I Got for Christmas
I already have my gift
For Christmas time this year
God gave it to me early
Knowing Christmas day was near
What I received is priceless
Something I could never buy
God gave me a second chance
When He could have let me die
Through the valley of the shadow
God brought me mercifully
Showing me what matters most
He gave the opportunity
To better understand the value
Of the people I hold dear
To reconsider my commitments
And why He placed me here
When I awake on Christmas morning
Hug my children and kiss my wife
That alone will be gift enough
Because I love my life
By Frank Carpenter ©

The Knowledge of Good and Evil

I am reminded, as I write, of the 1956 Alfred Hitchcock movie with the title, “The Man Who Knew Too Much.” Upon reflection, that actually describes most people as well. I recently re-read the beginning of the book of Genesis and was intrigued by the original sin of Adam and Eve and the fall of mankind. In that ideal environment they basically had one negative command: Don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil … or you will surely die. It seems simple enough. All they had to do was enjoy all the fruits and wonders of creation in an idyllic garden setting and leave one tree alone. However, they just couldn’t do it. They were deceived by Satan (the serpent), they ate the fruit, and the party was over. That familiar situation invites all manner of commentary and theory, but I wish only to dwell upon one issue today. Clearly good and evil existed, even then, or there would be no such tree. Adam and Eve were basking daily in the good of creation and relationship with God. The wise creator most likely understood that their lives would be far better if they could remain blissfully ignorant of evil. However, rather than hide it from them like a parent with child-proof cupboards, He merely commanded them to avoid evil. I think we were created, at least originally, for good. Thus, when we partook of that cursed tree it perverted and corrupted our existence. We didn’t need to know all the details of evil and that very knowledge is what separates us from the holy God. We live in a world brimming with the knowledge of good and evil, which manifests itself throughout our various modern forms of media. Evil not only exists, it actually seeks us out and forces itself upon us. Without belaboring that point, let me simply say that even as a relatively clean-living man I have inadvertently seen and heard enough evil to last three lifetimes. It is that knowledge, much like computer viruses, which infects our minds and serves to drive a wedge between us and God. For there is not room in our hearts and minds for both God and the conscious knowledge of evil at any give time. Thus we are, in a very real sense, the men who know too much. Worse yet, that knowledge is like a cancer that slowly eats away at our integrity, nobility and moral character. The concept of “you are what you eat” applies in the area of experiential knowledge as well. We are what we hear and see. Or, at the very least, we are in the process of becoming so. What can be done? God offered us a cure in the person of Jesus Christ, who is the antidote to evil. He erases our transgressions, pays the price of our sins and paves the way for a renewed innocence which allows us to once again approach the throne of a holy God. Knowledge of Jesus comes from the bible and through prayer.

If you feel your life slipping in the wrong direction or feel that you might not be turning into the person you had hoped to be, a good place to begin would be to consider the knowledge of good and evil and whether you have forbidden fruit in your own life. If that is the case, it might be time to chop down whatever trees bear such fruit and search for the tree of life instead. Don’t be “the man who knew too much.” There is a better man in you waiting to be discovered, one who knows what needs to be known and abhors what should be left unknown. I think a great filter to test the content of our media input is found in the bible in Philippians 4:8. It reads as follows: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.” That’s a good start. So I leave you today with the following poem which grew from this very subject. Remember that you control what flows into your heart and mind and that will determine the trajectory of your life.

The Knowledge of Good and Evil
Long ago, in the Garden of Eden
there stood two particular trees
The first one was the tree of life
where Adam and Eve ate as they pleased
But the second tree was forbidden
as was the fruit it bore
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil
God declared they should abhor
Of course, we all know the story
Eve was deceived and Adam as well
They ate the forbidden fruit and sinned
and that is how mankind fell
It was the knowledge of good and evil
which a holy God could not abide
And it separated God from man
who felt ashamed and fled to hide
The knowledge of good and evil
was far more than man needed to know
It robbed us of our innocence
thus God had forbidden it so
Worse yet that dreadful knowledge
which has brought us so much strife
Robbed us of those blessings
we could have known from the tree of life
So it is in this present world
where knowledge of good and evil abounds
Mercilessly pursuing us
from wherever it may be found
And if we allow our hearts and minds
to be filled and poisoned by
The knowledge of good and evil
something within us begins to die
For that is the fruit of rebellion
which the holy God counts as sin
And it cannot be tolerated by
the Holy Spirit who dwells within
If we are to know the tree of life
and the blessings God bestows
Then we must chop down the forbidden tree
in our hearts before it grows
For man was never intended to know
or have such ready access to
The knowledge of good and evil
as our God understood and knew
We were designed for higher purposes
intended for nobler thoughts
And our hearts only respond to God
when we partake of the trees we ought
If we desire to eat from the tree of life
and God’s blessing and power know
We must ask the Lord to cleanse us
of that knowledge He abhors so
We must turn from the forbidden tree
and the darkness which it brings
To fill our hearts with the word of God
fill our minds with loftier things
Only then can we enter God’s presence
or begin to discern His perfect will
Yet we must ever keep our guard up
against the knowledge which beckons still
It’s been the bane of human existence
since that day of original sin
But Jesus shattered its power upon the cross

gave us power not to give in
So when we hear the serpent whispering

all those same delectable lies
Let us flee from the knowledge of good and evil
Lest we’re tempted to compromise
By Frank Carpenter ©

Shell Seeker

I am reminded this morning of an old image that my wife and I have always cherished. Once upon a hazy morning by the seaside I sat for an hour or more observing as my daughter, who was quite young at the time, gathered shells and shiny stones by shore. It was a time of reflection set in the midst of a busy period of work and parenting. On that particular morning all she wanted to do was wander aimlessly along the sand and collect the assorted natural trinkets which generally only have value to a child. Yet, as I watched her I began to realize how little many of my own material desires and possessions were really worth. Indeed, we adults squander much of our lives collecting and paying for trinkets which, in the larger picture, are as worthless as the bucket of shells my daughter was so proud of. She, in her own childish way, saw the beauty in the simplest objects in nature and I daresay that they brought her more joy than much of what I had worked so hard to purchase. I learned a valuable lesson that day, through the wisdom of child whose capacity for joy and wonder greatly exceeded my own.

Such moments have helped to slowly bend my own value system so that I better understand what really matters in life. There are times when I am driven to sacrifice for the wrong things and work too hard to keep up with the Jones’. Then I try to remember the great wisdom of a little girl who understood true beauty and who taught me that the world is filled with shiny stones whose value is often unrelated to their price. I can only hope that you have had someone young enough and wise enough in your own life to teach you such lessons … and that you were willing to listen. May your day be filled with the wonder of simple things.

Shell Seeker
Down where the water meets the sand
She wanders happily
In search of shells and stones
And other treasures from the sea
Each prize borne in a bucket
Swinging from her tiny hand
As I watch my young shell seeker
Finding treasure in the sand
She takes me back to sea shores
And lazy mornings long gone by
When I combed the shore for treasure
With the same look in my eye
And I realize that nothing
I have bought with what I've earned
Has more value than her treasures
And it's high time that I learned
To stop, from time to time
And hear the waves upon the shore
To feel the wind upon my face
And be a shell seeker once more
By Frank Carpenter ©

We Must Take Them

There is clearly something in our make up which causes us to respond to nature. Whether the majesty of a mountain, the beauty of a sunset or the intricacy of the smallest flower, we were born to appreciate the wonders of creation. As an increasing number of our fellow humans beings live out their existence in the midst of urban and suburban sprawl they begin to lose touch with the out of doors. I refer, of course, to the real outdoors that was planted by God rather than the landscaping of sculpted niches of open space so many people have access to. I live in a place where it seems nearly tropical because so many palm trees have been planted, but that can hardly be considered when most of those trees emerge from tidy uniform holes in the concrete sidewalk. Indeed, no matter how much we advance our civilization or progress technologically we humans still have an inherent need for wilderness experiences of one kind or another. Some folks live in areas adjacent to the wilderness. However, for most of us it takes a little more effort to really get outdoors. Yet, when we finally do, we usually discover it was well worth that effort.

I believe that effort is even more important in the case of our young people. Indeed, children can’t set their own schedules or provide their own transportation so they are at our mercy from the standpoint of outings and vacations. Both as a father and a Scout leader I have had the privilege of getting young folks outdoors and seeing how they respond to it. Modern kids of all ages now live in a world of increasing technology and mounting pressures to perform in and outside of the classroom. Throw in cell phones, television, radio, mp3 players and such other distractions and you end up with an entire generation of young folks who have become unaccustomed to the therapeutic value of wilderness experience. We have to take them out of the noise and distraction of the city for them to appreciate what it means to enjoy the peace and quite of nature. In fact, the very term “peace and quiet” tends to lose its reference point when we don’t get outdoors. Nowadays, that phrase is more liable to conjure up thoughts of napping on the couch with the television off. Yet, those who know better understand that there can hardly be any substitute for the sound of a waterfall or wind in the pines, or the reflection of mountains on a lake. The song of a few common birds or three crickets in the side yard can hardly compare to the symphony of a twilight forest. No, we were made to be outdoors. Certainly, I don’t suppose that we should all live in teepees or caves. I merely mean that we need to get out of our homes and apartments from time to time and visit the places where animals still run free and the sun sets over a hill instead of city skyline or housing tract. It is our sacred responsibility as adults and mentors to be sure that the children in our sphere of influence are immersed in the wonders of creation face to face … which is the only true high definition, surround sound experience. For let me be clear: the Nature Channel is not really nature, nor is the Discovery Channel truly discovery. Those are videos of other people being outdoors. Our children need see the outdoors for themselves, but they cannot do so alone, and they will not do so without our leadership and inspiration. We must take them.

We Must Take Them
We must take our children
Out of town and out of doors
To the forest and the mountains
The desert and the ocean shores
We must take them into nature
Let them feel and hear and see
All the wonders of creation
It’s our responsibility
To ensure that children understand
The world we all must share
They should experience its beauty
So that they learn to care
For the creatures and the places
Which are still untouched and wild
This is among the greatest gifts
That we can give a child
For to know the open spaces
And to breathe the open air
Is to understand creation ...
But we must take them there.
By Frank Carpenter ©