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The Pinecone
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March 2015
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f r om Don J oh n s on , K i r b y P i n e s Chap l a i n
Chaplain’s COrner
March
Vesper
Services
March 26th
Reverend Doctor
Cindy Schwartz
Advent Presbyterian
Samuel Shoemaker, an Episcopal minister in the mid 20th Century, was considered one of the 10
greatest preachers in America. He was listed with greats like Dr. Billy Graham and Norman Vincent
Peale. He was co-founder with Bill Wilson of AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) contributing much to
the steps and spiritual principles of this work. As pastor of the Calvary Protestant Episcopal Church
in New York City and later serving in Pittsburgh, Rev. Shoemaker impacted many across America.
Christmas, 1958 he published “So I Stand By The Door.” It was subtitled “An Apology For My
Life.” Apology didn’t mean what the word symbolizes today…being sorry for one’s life. It meant a
grand statement of one’s actions and accomplishments. It was a declaration of the paths and goals
followed. Shoemaker’s poem was also titled “So I Stand Near The Door.”
Listen to what he said:
I Stay Near The Door
I stay near the door.
I neither go too far in, nor stay too far out,
The door is the most important thing in the world--
It is the door through which men walk when they find God.
There’s no use my going way inside, and staying there,
When so many are still outside, and they, as much as I,
Crave to know where the door is.
And all that so many ever find
Is only the wall where a door ought to be,
They creep along the wall like blind men,
With outstretched, groping hands,
Feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door,
Yet they never find it…
So I stay near the door.
The most tremendous thing in the world
Is for men to find that door—the door to God.
The most important thing any man can do
Is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands,
And put it on the latch—the latch that only clicks
And opens to the man’s own touch.
Men die outside that door, as starving beggars die
On cold nights in cruel cities in the dead of winter--
Die for want of what is within their grasp.
They live on the other side of it—
live because they have not found it.
Nothing else matters compared to helping them find it,
And open it, and walk in, and find Him…
So I stay near the door.
March 5th
Reverend
Jeff Findlay
Evangelical Church
March 12th
Doctor
Steve Cook
Second Baptist
March 19th
Reverend
Mark Matheny
Retired United Methodist
I admire the people who go way in.
But I wish they would not forget how it was
Before they got in. Then they would be able to help
The people who have not even found the door,
Or the people who want to run away again from God.
You can go in too deeply, and stay in too long,
And forget the people outside the door.
As for me, I shall take my old accustomed place,
Near enough to God to hear Him, and know He is there,
But not so far from men as not to hear them,
And remember they are there too.
Where? Outside the door--
Thousands of them, millions of them.
But—more important for me--
One of them, two of them, ten of them,
Whose hands I am intended to put on the latch,
So I shall stay by the door and wait
For those who seek it.
I had rather be a doorkeeper…
So I stay near the door.
What a statement of life! We should all be doorkeepers. We
who have found the way in have both an opportunity and
obligation for others who are seeking. We can’t go inside and
forget those who still are looking for the way in. No greater
privilege can be ours than to place their hands on the latch and
help them in. Let’s always be open to hear God and the voices
of those who are still outside. Like Samuel Shoemaker let’s
stay near the door! (Psalm 84:10)
Till next time, Don Johnson, KP Chaplain