The Painful Art of Learning...How to Trust

Here's to this New Year's Workouts!

While body-building exercises can be painful and teeth-gritting

I've discovered trust-honing is a far more painful

and patience-building process;

it's heart-gripping exercises often

performed with the invisible weight of waiting,

it's endurance test challenging kindness, generosity and humility.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy 

and peace as you trust in him, 

so that you may overflow with hope 

by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Rom.15:13

I chose the above verse for this year's Christmas Card

because it seems esp. meaningful/fitting right now,

and I still forget its attitude/Fortitude, far too easily! 

(maybe because deep down I'm trying to

handle 'trust' too much on my own

and not by the power of the Holy Spirit)

Prayer for today:

Oh God, help us, through you, to trust You

and not get caught up in the noise of arguments

that accomplish nothing good for your purpose,

In Jesus' Name

Amen

This poem is a bit of heart-fray...

This tattered, frayed, shattered, 

Disappointment-smattered 

Shorn, weary-worn, forlorn, 

Sorrow-torn Hope 

This lot, often caught in 

A tangle of angles 

And wrangles; Its ‘paint’ 

Well-acquainted with ‘nope’ 

This mixety-maxety 

No quick-fix calamity 

Pricking, swift-kicking, 

Sticking-points galore 

This rough, tough kerfuffle 

With stuff, love and trouble 

Is enough to ruffle 

Faith’s feathers, for sure 

This stretched-to-the -limit 

Where minute by minute 

Its gamut is fresh-stymied 

With giants of dust 

This hunger-prone, bent-to-hone

Wild burning yearning 

Is but the heart learning 

The art of true trust 

© Janet Martin 

One of my go-to pick-me-upper songs

Jesus, Only Jesus