This Mortality

My, my, but mortal is master of disaster,

when lured by lust of the flesh, lust of the eye and pride of life!

 (For everything in the world--the lust of the flesh, 

the lust of the eyes, 

and the pride of life--

comes not from the Father 

but from the world.)

1 John 2:16 

It heaves upon the crest of earth in birth and death-wrought spree

It laughs and grieves abreast the breadth of immortality

As Time set in four-season spans twirls like a carousel

And man embarks and exits ‘neath the tolling of its bell

Where we prove, as we learn to love, the nature of the beast

Where deathless soul instills the glove upon which moments feast

And none of us can circumvent the Hour that must be

When we are called to shed the tent of This Mortality

It boasts; oh God forgive us when we forget Mercy’s girt

As we dare to puff out our chests and strut our stuff of dirt

As we forget to smote our breasts and cry out, ‘what is man’

As we ignore the Author and Finisher of our ‘can’

As we make wealth an idol rather than worship’s employ

As we take without uttering one phrase of praise or joy

Where grace is always greater than This Mortality’s mess

And God is always faithful to forgive if we confess

Each travels through this world but once toward a binding goal

When This Mortality becomes the chariot of the soul

Where for now we must all partake of trust’s manifold tiers

As waves of hope and heartache surge and merge with days and years

While dreams are dashed and born anew and lashed by winds of change

And all of us are headed to what Last Gasp will estrange

As we enter that which remains life’s Greatest Mystery

When Mortal sheds its rags and puts on Immortality

© Janet Martin

 For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

For the perishable must be clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable

 and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come to pass: 

 “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”…

1 Cor.15:52-54