A Professor and A Poem

One of the gifts of having lived a few decades and lived in several different places is getting to know and meet so many people through the years.     While I am grateful for the people I encounter regularly,   I also give thanks for the people who have gone on to their just reward and who are now apart of the “communion of saints”.   Recently,  I got to thinking about the late Robert Cushman, one of my professors at Duke Divinity School.    He was in his final years of teaching at Duke when I was his student  after having served in former years also as Dean of the Divinity School.  

I found myself intimidated by Dr. Cushman though I am not totally sure why.  Perhaps it was his reserved New England gentlemanly manner or his common use of words that were far beyond my own vocabulary.  I particularly remember one day in class when Dr. Cushman shared the following poem:    

“I met God in the morning,
When my day was at its best
And His presence came like sunrise,
Like a glory in my breast.

“All day long the Presence lingered;
All day long He stayed with me;
And we sailed in perfect calmness
O’er a very troubled sea.

“Other ships were blown and battered,
Other ships were sore distressed,
But the winds that seemed to drive them
Brought to us a peace and rest.

“Then I thought of other mornings,
With a keen remorse of mind.
When I too had loosed the moorings
With the Presence left behind.

“So, I think I know the secret,
Learned from many a troubled way;
You must seek Him in the morning
If you want Him through the day.”

The poem moved me that day.  What was even more moving was the fact that I discovered the poem was written by Dr. Cushman’s father, Bishop Ralph S. Cushman.    While anytime is a good time to commune with our heavenly Father,   I have made it a custom to regularly spend time with Him  in the morning.  I commend to you the practice of spending concentrated time with the Lord each day whether morning, evening, or noon-time.    As it is important to spend time with our friends and family, so it is important that we spend time with our heavenly Father.    Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:    O God,  we are grateful that you desire to have a living relationship with us.  Give us the discipline to take time to spend with you;  through Christ our Lord.  Amen.