Showing posts with label disappointment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label disappointment. Show all posts

Monday, May 1, 2023

Such is Perhaps

I've come to the conclusion that love and life
are a fine mingling of disappointment and delight!


Torrential down-pours to and from Pennsylvania
 hampered/dampened what would have been even more spectacular views,
on our weekend getaway to attend our nephew's wedding!


Dodging the timing of the wipers to capture the *perfect shot became a bit of a game...
*(I quickly gave up on 'perfect' and simply hoped for a few unblurry shots)😅


But Saturday was less wet than forecasted 
so we didn't get drenched in the morning while doing touristy things
 nor in the afternoon did guests get drenched. 
The wedding was beautiful!


This beautiful couple have already been through some deeply refining disappointments
requiring dream-rearranging...(shot blurred for privacy sake)


Weather-disappointments are a part of life and overall
rather small on the scale of disappointments!
And God's handiwork is stunning, even in the rain!
(both literally and metaphorically)



Sometimes dreams don't turn out how we imagine/anticipate!
But if we place our dreams into God's hands
 perhaps, no, surely He will use the disappointment
to deepen our awareness and appreciation for
the myriad of mercies we are showered with daily! 







Dreamworlds collapse; Such is ‘perhaps’
…perhaps life’s bitter-sweetest means
Of teaching us to hope and trust
In more than destiny of dreams

Perhaps to help us hone the heart
To kinder, meeker give-and-take
Because we know the stinging smart
That ‘perhaps’ can leave in its wake

...to make us more aware of how
We wield the onus of replies
Where perhaps ‘perhaps’ is the ‘wow’
Still wearing broken-dream disguise

...while we weather warpaths of wish
Vexed by detours, potholes, barred gates
Perhaps we should remember this;
 Perhaps something far better waits

© Janet Martin



Life's disappointments develop and test
the mettle of our character.
Everyone is hunky-dory when life goes the way we like, right?
When it doesn't...ah! what then?!

1 Thess.5:18
...in everything give thanks; 
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

A lot of our deepest disappointments are only fully witnessed
by He who truly loves and cares!
Thank-you, faithful Heavenly Father🙏




Wednesday, October 26, 2022

For Bearers of Hurts and Disappointments



So much of faith's fight is fought in the hidden battlefield of the heart
where often God alone is witness of its tender triumphs and death-defying defeats!
God's call to faithfulness is not for the faint of heart nor for half-hearted endeavors!
Faithfulness is an all-in fight to the finish
often riddled with hurts and disappointments.


1 Cor.9:24-26
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize?
 Run in such a way as to take the prize. 
25Everyone who competes in the games trains with strict discipline. 
They do it for a crown that is perishable, but we do it for a crown that is imperishable. 
26Therefore I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight like I am beating the air. 
27No, I discipline my body and make it my slave, 
so that after I have preached to others, 
I myself will not be disqualified.

This poem began when dawn dripped from coral eaves...


Now the day is almost done awash with rain and leaves...



Where hurt and disappointment rakes relentless talons through
Where we wrestle with sacred stakes witnessed by only You
Where we are often tested by the fires of dismay
Our motives tried and tempted by the liar’s merchant sway
Where touch cannot make manifest, nor visage intervene
The substance of hope’s hidden quest of evidence unseen
Where the strait gate which faith is warned to press and strive toward
Bids us to endure hardness like a soldier for You, Lord

Bids us to put on the full armour only You supply
Bids us to be on guard for the Charmer of cunning ply
Bids us to lay our all upon altars of sacrifice
Bids us to heed the call without aversion to the price
Bids us to bear love’s cross in faith’s response of gratitude
Where what appears as loss on earth is but Heaven’s prelude
Where hurt and disappointment clings to grace that will not fail
While we wrestle with Reckonings that Your face will unveil

Grace crowns the law of Moses with the law of love’s decree
Knowing Your love that chose us is the law that sets us free
That the gift of salvation no mortal creed can undo
There is no condemnation for all who are found in You
Knowing You are not mocked; and that we will reap what we sow
Knowing not how we talk but walk is the fruit that will grow/show
While hurt and disappointment undo and refine the part
That only You bear witness to; the throne room/war room of the heart

Lord, there is nothing hid from You; nothing impossible
Where hurts and disappointments rue, You work the miracle
Where transformation’s work is wrought, not on a bed of ease
But in the thick of what is not according to our ‘please’
As we yield fear and dread and doubt to faith to undergird
And do not take one step without reliance on Your Word
Where hurts and disappointments hone the heart, so oft betrayed
To fix its hope and trust upon the Cornerstone You laid

© Janet Martin


Wednesday, April 7, 2021

Delight and Disappointment's Crown






...the sun rises,
doles out its daily dose of delight...


then tucks another page of time to the archives..

Delight and disappointment
Compose life’s harmony
Where love’s perfect contentment
Mingles with misery
Where trying could mean flying
Or face-plant in the dirt
Where holding means untying
Those heartstrings where they hurt

Where life is always teaching
More than seen at first glance
Where hope is always reaching
Beyond the circumstance
Perpetual estrangement
Of moments, echo spun
A rose and thorn arrangement
Shadows cast by the sun

A bittersweet concoction
Of dazzling dreams and shards
A motley interaction
With brutes, beggars and bards
Where prayer is never nothing
So prayer, dear comrade, pray
For there is always something
To learn along the way

Delight and disappointment
Seem to go hand in hand
One thrills us with enjoyment
One tests creature demand
But somehow as we weather
Dismay and happiness
The two of them together
Crown us with thankfulness

© Janet Martin


Saturday, February 27, 2021

Disappointment's Catalyst


There is no getting around it; life is full of disappointments!
The future as it passes seldom looks like we imagined!
Without utter faith in God, hope is a lost cause!

Disappointment can be as minor as unwanted weather
and fender-benders
and as major as life and death matters!


This life is lavished with beauty (often in the broken),
and happiness (often full of holes)
and little time-outs (often when we least want them)


This is one of my battle-songs 
when things come along
I cannot understand
The first line is 
'Here's my heart, Lord, Speak what is true'
We cannot however, hear what is true unless we
turn to His Word and hide it
in our hearts so we do not sin against Him, 
as we surrender personal opinion and interpretation to


Thy word have I hid in mine heart, 
that I might not sin against thee.
Psalm 119:11

Disappointment does not cater to the hopes and dreams of we 
Weathering, in spite of wishes, the brunt of reality 
What a fete of faith and labour paves the street from here to where 
We shake off the dust of trusting and take off the yoke of prayer 

We are not equipped to carry more than one day at a time 
Worry drains us of The Very Present Help we need to climb 
Where no one can build a barrack that can thwart life’s suffering 
But where faith always has access to the Shelter of God’s Wing 

And to put on the full armour that will fit us for the fight 
On an altar of surrender to the One who paid sin’s price 

Disappointment is most often the unwanted catalyst 
God allows in hopes to soften hearts and rebellion’s clenched fist 
What a fete of hard-fought yielding to the higher, perfect ways 
As we learn to trust the Giver and the keeper of our days 

© Janet Martin 

Psalm 121:5
The LORD is your keeper; 
The LORD is your shade at your right hand.



Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Disappointments, We All Get 'Em...


It feels like it's been a stretch
 of vexing little set-backs and disappointments; 
(just life-headaches, but...)
The latest:
I opened a pack of pre-ordered printed Christmas photos and the first thing I see is this...


I had a terrible (well, for technically-challenged me) time getting everything to fit and save 
and didn't notice the date had reverted back to the template setting??😐
That's all I can figure out though I thought I checked everything thrice!!
...so nothing to do but fix it; At least it's not a wedding invitation or something like that!

 
Earlier this month a bright spot was delivered in form of apple pie 
courtesy of many volunteers from our church
assembling them for our young families  
as an encouragement during these trying Covid-times.
(No! We are not considered 'younger family'😊)
 but I had the honour of writing a poem for
 the lids of the pie-boxes and received a pie as a thank-you!
Because someone had framed the poem 
in lovely autumn- artwork I hung it on the fridge. 
Tonight I reread it and decided this coming weekend 
we are baking the pie to enjoy,
and forget disappointments for a bit!


Victoria comforted me with these words
'Sure, in the big picture these are little things
but in the moment they still hurt💛

She makes me want to count my blessings, 
not my disappointments!
And she is one of our best!

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Not Learned In Books





Love’s knife of disappointment rends
With unexpected ease
And life can pack a sucker-punch
That knocks us to our knees
The heart, though beating can be crushed
Or torn apart within
The art of learning, never rushed
In worlds beneath our skin

Love’s lessons are not taught in books
No prescript rules to naught
The law whereby we undertook
Its pleasures without thought
Still, we are never quite prepared
For what we did not know
Where, given time few, few are spared
Love’s subtle, cruel blow

We are a breed of common need
The greed of who we are
Is subject to the bitter seed
Of hunger’s holy war
God, help us, heal us from the hurt
Where love would be in vain
If we could not brush off its dirt
And try, try, try again

© Janet Martin



Friday, May 15, 2015

Love Loves



Love loves
and we cannot turn it down
We may turn away from it
Utter excuses of unworthiness
Feeling justified then
in our rejection of it,
or our disappointment in it
But love loves
in spite of us
...we cannot turn it down

This is why Jesus came
to teach us how to love
Then imperfection
can put on perfection
not because of who we are
But because of who He is
Thereby
Love loves
and we cannot turn it down

In spite of what we think
or do
or say
or think we ought to think
or do
 or say
Love loves
and we may turn away from it
But
we cannot turn it down

We would always be unworthy
but for Jesus
His love allows us to say 'yes'
in spite of ourselves...
in our weaknesses,
In our brokenness
in shortcomings,
in our gross need
of forgiveness
He so loves us
as we ought to love one another
We cannot turn it down

In spite of our unworthiness
We can say 'yes'
'Yes' to His strength,
'Yes' to His healing,
'Yes' to His fulness
'Yes' to His grace
Because the Father of Love
Is perfect
Filling with worth
our flawed imitations
of Love

Janet~

 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.…1 John 4:9-11

Since someone handed words of appreciation and love back to me with a 'no thank-you', siting shortcomings and weaknesses as reasons, I have been pondering Love.
If we wait until we are without weakness or imperfection then no one could love or be loved
until Heaven!

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Not Your Typical Mother's Day Poem

(Photo is from the book, Notes on Love and Courage by Hugh Prather)


We will always be hurt most
Where love runs most deeply
Testing the measure
Of words spouted cheaply

Disappointment often wears
Not the face of strangers,
But family and friends
Born with human nature

Our own weaknesses
Are not excuses
For self-pity or revenge
We should remember Jesus

…and forgive as does He
What we cannot erase
We are broken vessels
Saved by grace

© Janet Martin

 Thinking of hurting mothers this morning. May God's grace fill you with unexpected joy!

 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. Ps. 23


Friday, March 27, 2015

New Reasons To Be Thankful





When life with sundry care to bear
Gives more than we deem our just share
And when the letting go is hard
And leaves us feeling sorrow-jarred
When we question the ‘why’ of it
Or nurse vain self-pity a bit
When it is past we learn at last
New reasons to be thankful

And when over a cup of tea
We think of others’ misery
And how when life poured out its woe
They bore the More of grief, then oh,
We are quite humbled at this thought
Of how life’s obstacles have taught
Us sympathy and then we see
New reasons to be thankful

When disappointment’s stings subside
And we have swallowed our pride
When we with love fully forgive
Then we have learned to fully live
When we have turned the other cheek
Without revenge to seek or speak
But remain kind, then we will find
New reasons to be thankful

© Janet Martin

Happy Birthday, Lucy .
God bless you as you seek to serve Him and shine.
Wasn't it a happy tea-party?

We parted agreeing on this thought; challenges teach us new reasons to be thankful!