And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad. (Luke 24:17, ESV)
If you don’t know the poet Nash, allow me to introduce him. Ogden Nash, who wrote a little poem called “Reflection on Ice Breaking” that opines,
Candy
Is dandy
But liquor
Is quicker,
was not only incredibly clever, he also loved baseball—and golf.
His titles were often quite funny in themselves (“What Is Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo in Sanscrit?”), and his use of language—especially his intentional modification of words to make them rhyme (“Better yet, if called by a panther/Don’t anther”), all add to the enjoyment of reading Nash.
But his observations are ultimately what pull me in, whether humorous or serious. An example of the former is “Common Sense”:
Why did the Lord give us agility,
If not to evade responsibility?
An example of the latter is “Old Men,” published when Nash was just 29 himself.
No elected official has the answers God has, after all.On the golf course, I’ve been known to quote lines from Nash’s “Who Taught Caddies To Count? or A Burnt Golfer Fears The Child” in which the penultimate verse begins,
Oh where this side of the River Styx
Will you find an equal mate
To the scorn of a man with a seventy-six
For a man with a seventy-eight?
Nash was great at changing the conversation. In fact he wrote a poem specifically on that idea, and many of his poems start you in what seems to be a clear direction only to take you somewhere better.
There is plenty of conversation going on around us, and it is the same from Florida to California: pandemic, riots, coming elections. If you have a day without being engaged in a conversation on at least one of those topics, it’s because you have not been in a conversation at all!
How do we change those conversations? Well, if someone stops talking to take a breath, you might say, “In times like this, it is good to remember that God is still good and still in charge.”
As one of my Links Players said in a recent Zoom meeting, we need to point people to God, not government. Amen to that. Speaking of amen, we can also point people to prayer rather than politics. No elected official has the answers God has, after all.
As Jesus joined two men on the road to Emmaus, he asked the question we started with today in Luke 24. After listening for a bit, he elevated the conversation: “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (verse 27).
Elevate the conversation. That’s even better than shooting 76, and no scorn is needed.
—
Lewis Greer
July 13, 2020
Copyright 2020 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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