A Very Present Responsibility

How do these things happen?! we ask as we watch the news and mourn the aftermaths of atrocities rendered one to another. They happen when we cease to love another!

He answered, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind';
and,
 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

Luke 10:27

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

John 13:35

So much noise these days, some evil, some intended for good,

but because of the noise some become quiet

and because of the quietness some becomes noisy!

All is in vain, but that which is love!

So Today, let's let Love lead

I’m glad we do not need to see

Tomorrow and what waits to be

I’m glad we do not need to bear

Tomorrow with its weight of care

I’m glad we do not need to know

Tomorrow’s lot of joy or woe

But that, by grace of God we may

Give our best to each Today

Anxiety for morrow’s mile

Drains Today of its sing-and-smile

To fret about the ‘yet’ is vain

Tomorrow, no one can attain

Still, we are never called to be

Sojourners of complacency

But rather, with meek heart to pray

And seek God’s guidance for today

For oh, the weight of it is great

But love makes worth its earth-estate

Therefore, with kind humility

How mindful of Time we should be

Yet never try to carry more

Than what today is granted for

Where Mercy’s present help is laid  

In each today the Lord has made

© Janet Martin

 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Ps.46:1

Love Suffers Long...And Is Kind

When love weighs hard upon the heart

And soft upon our tears

When it is at a loss for words

Save thought, God alone hears

When it is understood that love

Suffers long yet is kind

Then we begin to glimpse the love

The Author had in mind

When what we first perceived as love

Tests mortal uttermost

Then, then we have a chance to prove

Validity of boast

…and when we come to end of self

And what we thought we knew

Oh, praise God for His faithful help

His love will lead us through

© Janet Martin

Blessing-shower

Some sweet, sweet August mementos...

 Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, 

and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: 

they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee:  

if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.

Ps.40:5

Orchard slope is laden with blossom-hope come true

August is a maiden with eyes corn-flower blue

Bare feet traipse where heat-sweet haze glazes dusty earth

Farewell, fleet, green yesterdays of lusty rebirth

Saffron sunrise-hour spilt, sires history

August is a flower quilt tossed on spired lea

Thistle-seed and thimble-weed, teasel, goldenrod

Stipples summer’s easel with Masterpiece from God

Garden brims with gourd-shaped hymns, onion-pepper-corn

August is a lure-draped limb bent with bud full born

Love and longing intertwine, wind through vying rooms

Like an intangible vine, lined with dying blooms

Brush the brooding tear, my dear, seasons come to pass

August is a belvedere where echoes amass

Hush, ere morrow steals the boy’s carefree, happy play

Sorrow is the child of joy; live, laugh, love today

List, the cricket fiddle-lay, morn to middle-night

August is a ticket, hey, to dog-day delight  

Court its flower-hour cupped in fallible jars

Count its blessing-shower like children counting stars

© Janet Martin

Travel Instructions... #2

Walk slow…this come and go affair of care-worn wake and sleep surprise

Is hewn where petal-bliss is strewn ‘neath heath of blue cloud-flowered skies

 

Look deep…into the heart of lilied art; God’s dew-gem diadem

Deserves more than a passive glance and dance on earth’s bedazzled hem

Listen… a christened orchestra conducted imperceptibly 

Spills warbler trills and leafy zephyr sighs in perfect harmony

Touch soft…the croft of season that soon gathers in time's ordained due

Pity the passenger that while reaching, misses the present view

  

Let go…though tears flow for the soul-sweet 'oh' that stole our very breath

Walk slow, look deep, listen, touch soft then let go…such is life to death

© Janet Martin

Travel Instructions

This forward-journey that we tread 

Is affixed betwixt future-past

Into dusk’s urn day’s husk is cast

As on yon arc starred dark is spread

How deftly Unknown to Known melds

Its common unveiling becomes

The latest in past’s greatest sums

Of, what at morn was yet withheld

Daylight will soon attune applause

With what will soon be retrospect

How soft the wisps that intersect

To cement what will be to ‘was’

Beyond this sight-rebellious way

God moves His love’s mysterious will

To draw our gaze up, up until

We fall down on our knees and pray

Life’s hurt that hones hope’s legacy

Tests man’s impetuous desires

Where fragile circumstance requires

Faith in far more than we can see

Dismay and doubt conspire, it seems

To trip us up or keep us down

God floods life’s way to heaven’s crown

With Mercy’s unquenchable streams

This journey through, not to the grave

Commands surrender to gain strength

Where neither height, depth, breadth or length

Can curb God’s love, mighty to save

Then trust in He who scores this sod

With more than mist-anointed mile

Where fear’s uncertainty will rile

All but the heart whose hope is God

© Janet Martin

To find God's love we first need to find God.

To find God we first need to find His Word.

To find His Word we must look in the Holy Bible