Hi, I'm Joni and welcome to a week of poems!
And I don’t often say this, but I love it when you post a comment on my radio page or visit my blog on the Joni and Friends’ website. And I especially enjoy it when you share the words to your favorite poem or a hymn. I'm a big poetry buff, and I make a habit of collecting poems that I pass on in letters I write or, well … share on this program! Not long ago I received a nice note from D’Lora who listens on KVIP. She sent me a small book of handwritten poems that her Aunt Zuella wrote back in the early 1900s … as D’Lora explained, her aunt lived much of her time in a wheelchair, and just listen to what Zuella wrote more than a century ago. She called this poem “It is Better”:
It is better for me that I should dwell In a simple house and small;
Content with earth I might become, If I dwelt in marble halls.
It is better also that my attire Should never too costly be,
For vain and proud I might become, If adorned elaborately.
It is better for me that I should serve In a hidden, humble place;
He knows where best my life shows forth The riches of His grace.
It is better His name should have the praise And that mine forgotten be;
If ought of good on earth I’ve done, ‘Tis because He enabled me.
You can tell by the cadence and rhythm that the poem I just read was written early in the last century, right? Dear Aunt Zuella. You know, just sharing this poem of hers, it reminds me that here we are living and wondering if anyone will ever notice or care about what we’ve done, what we’ve said, the witness we’ve left. Well, there was once a woman named Zuella, crippled with arthritis and at her early age was left in a wheelchair. She was homebound and spent most of her time writing notes, making scrapbooks and composing poetry, and praying. Aunt Zuella’s life was a solitary one and her brother (they say) once noted that he never heard his sister complain.
According to the letter that came with Zuella’s book of poems, her brother made a small little leather strap so that her sister, with her arthritis, could hold a pen. Now you have to remember, this was in the 1900s, so there weren’t many adaptive aids, technology to assist, or medication to ease the pain. But if this woman’s poetry is any reflection of who she was, then Zuella didn’t seem to mind. This woman had a lively love for the Lord Jesus. And so let me read this again …
It is better for me that I should serve In a hidden, humble place;
He knows where best my life shows forth The riches of His grace.
It is better His name should have the praise And that mine forgotten be;
If ought of good on earth I’ve done, ‘Tis because He enabled me.
That wisdom, right there; her insight is as contemporary and current for any of us today. Little would this woman of another century have imagined that, more than 100 years later, you and I would be inspired by her poetry. And if you'd like a copy of this poem, and the others I've read this week, then visit my radio page today at joniandfriends.org – you can easily download it or print it from my webpage. And while you're there, share with me one of your favorite poems of inspiration. And remember, if you're not online, you could always write for your copy of today's poem at Joni and Friends, P.O. Box 3333, Agoura Hills, CA 91376.
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Agoura Hills, CA 91376
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