Showing posts with label strength. Show all posts
Showing posts with label strength. Show all posts

Friday, September 23, 2022

Hymn of Today



How oft it seems my heart is torn
Twixt want and wonder's 'How?'
While from wellsprings of morn to morn
Mercy renews Love's Vow

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; 
I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.
Jer.31:3

Yet I call this to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
22Because of the loving devotionb of the LORD 
we are not consumed,
for His mercies never fail.
23They are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness!
24“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in Him.”
Lam.3:21-24

It was one of those mornings where the knowledge of Hope
grappled with the Anchor; where the heart's cables groaned 
beneath the ache and weight of creature-care,
where there was but one thing remaining; prayer
as Mercy Renewed broke through the darkness!
Hallelujah!

The sunrise like a mighty metaphor...





On shores of hurt and hunger yon doors of daybreak part
Where wars of want and wonder vex body, mind and heart
Where anguish and elation in constant conflict vie
A vexing combination of intent and reply

Before soon slips to After; twixt What Was and Will Be
Time’s roar of tears and laughter pours through humanity
In stunning revelation; nobody left intact
Where no imagination can void matters of fact

Faith and fear, hope and heartache, desire and despair
A smorgasbords of choices, we partake of its fare
Where today hinged to morrow, is like life’s quintessence
Of love’s joy hinged to sorrow, of choice to consequence

Where whatever we weather, more weather waits to be
Where we are altogether bound for more than we see
Where the glory of living is not in what we get
But in the sacred giving earnest heed to The Yet

Of what is sure and certain, still waiting in the wake
Until death’s lowered curtain unveils what is at stake
Until the holy thunder of Last Breath sails the sea
Twixt Shores of Want and Wonder and Vast Eternity

Through doors of Divine Mercy, to shores of you and me
New morning shines with berths of fresh opportunity
Where the grace of the Giver holds Judgment’s bar at bay
He strums the strings that quiver with hope’s/love's hymn of Today

© Janet Martin

Eph.3:14-21
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, 
to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; 
that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 May be able to comprehend with all saints 
what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,
 that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly
 above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus 
throughout all ages, world without end.
 Amen.

This song premiered on YouTube half an hour ago!
How unbelievably fitting!! 
I weep and leap for joy!
Oh God, I praise you again!




Monday, May 13, 2019

Power Source




When we are weak it bids us seek
Someone to lean upon
For we are all subject to fall
No one can stand alone

And who can bear life’s load of care
Without a faithful friend
And who can be our Surety
When human helpers end

This little life is filled with strife
And disappointment’s hits
We need God's grace to help us face
Whatever He permits

His grace will be enough to see
Us through the darkest vale
Faith’s intercourse, the Power Source
That can and will not fail

For He who probes the petal-globes
And fills Time's transient holds
Is omniscient and sufficient 
For all that it unfolds

© Janet Martin

perfected in weakness.” 
That is why, 
for the sake of Christ, I delight
 in weaknesses, 
in insults, 
in hardships, 
in persecutions, 
in difficulties. 
For when I am weak, 
then I am strong.

2 Cor.12:9-10

Thursday, August 23, 2018

Coping 'Mechanism'



...after a few *milk-bag boots-in-the-garden mornings...(story below)
dawn's coral jewel is back!


 (For a few minutes yesterday morning the sun 
popped through a band of dark rain-blue clouds
turning plain puddles into polished gold)


That coral gem on far-east hem soft-chimes; time’s gong turns gold and grins
It washes from earth’s girth the brume of birth and a new day begins
Where what waits next, ah, who can guess; for care has many shoes to fill
But how we cope, ah, steadfast hope; God’s grace sufficient for all, still

That well-laid ‘plan’ so dear to man is subject to a Higher Hand
And if He wills for man's good, ills, then surely He will help us stand
For He who draws from Mercy’s laws morn’s misted gauze of blush and blue
Does not leave us to fret and fuss without His hope to help us through

That sash of dew on splash of ‘new’ soon trades its diamonds for plain dirt
Where sweat and toil is the grand spoil of health; a common wealth of hurt
But, what a gift, the bend and lift and grunt-heave-ho of work to do
Where Steadfast Hope will help us cope as God grants strength to me and you


© Janet Martin

Where Morning Prayer is often a plea for God to bless and guide and keep
Night’s prayer is often a humble ‘thank-you for strength for the day’ before we fall asleep


  *where did I get the idea for milk-bag boots?

From a woman in North Carolina featured on The Weather Network.
One day when the camera-crew dropped by for a visit. 
she was mowing her lawn with a riding mower at quite a speed!
Wow! they exclaimed, You are amazing for a woman of...70-ish?!
"92!", she replied in an emphatic make-no-mistake voice!
... they decided on another surprise-visit.
This time when they knocked she wasn't in the house so they followed the sound of an engine and found her tilling her garden!!! on a hot Carolina day (and this is where the milk-bags come in!)
She covered her good-support shoes with milk-bags so when, (after she showed them her substantial garden which she had no plans of stopping as long as she was able) she invited them into the house, 
and all she had to do was slip the bags off her feet and step into her immaculate kitchen 
where fresh-baked pecan pies were cooling on the counter.
(she insisted they take one) The camera-crew was speechless!
When they asked, as they sat with her on her sprawling front-porch 'how do you do it?!"
 the 92 year-old woman replied after thinking for a little as she rocked slowly back and forth,
"Well, I don't worry much. I do what I can and leave the rest to God"

That line has become my mantra!

Monday, July 8, 2013

Still, There is Joy





On some-days the pen is heavy and inspiration falls
Limpid like a wilted stem beneath thought’s judgment calls
And the wind that moves through the willow-tree is weeping more than sighing
Like the rush that surges now through me responds; a kindred crying
But still,
There is joy

On some days the frying-pans are burnt and all the laundry soiled
Beneath the joy of living fully where forefathers toiled
And we spend too long hunting for things hastily mislaid
While the willow-wind is taunting us and spreading wide its shade
Yet still,
There is joy

On some days we are so weary that it almost hurts to breathe
But everyone is hungry; prudence bids us bind our sheaves
And count our many blessings as they pour from vaulted dome
In the tender-sweet caressing of a place that we call Home
So still,
There is joy

© Janet Martin

My grandma’s life was not nearly perfect, yet more often then not she would be humming a song of praise to her Creator as she worked (it seemed, tirelessly) and often she spoke of her blessings. I think of her now in another Home! Yes, this is the greatest Joy for the earthly home; that hope of another Home and we want to choose joy now, be that Joy, spread it like a love-song to everyone we meet!



Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Perfect Strength

Poetics Aside prompt; write a suffering poem

I've seen it...that  Perfect Strength

When his mother (of a large family) spoke of being 'carried'
after losing everything in a house-fire,
after losing a son in Afghanistan,
after losing her husband suddenly a few years later...

I've seen it as my cousin tells me
he wouldn't go back to the 'before' if he had a choice
if it would mean giving up what has been given in place
of the leg he lost in a farming accident last fall...being carried

I saw it it today as I hugged her, me choked up
and she calmly  saying those words
...words like chemotherapy, second treatment today,
radiation, hair falling out and I knew
she was being carried in the arms
of Perfect Strength

Janet~

1Cor. 12:9

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Until We Are Weak





Until we are weak, we cannot be strong
Perfect strength is not reserved for the young
But through One whose promises agelessly speak
We cannot be strong until we are weak

His grace is enough for all mortal despair
Our infirmities never exceed His care
Nothing on this earth over-powers His love
For all mortal despair His grace is enough

The darkness is great, it cannot comprehend
A love that has known no beginning or end
Though the Light shines on it, darkness chooses hate
It cannot comprehend; the darkness is great

Love is so abused; often misunderstood
Thus, we are confused when we hear ‘God is good’
Love appeared weak; He answered not, though accused
Often misunderstood; Love is so abused

Love proved its power as the cross bore His blood
The Lion, a Lamb shedding redemption’s flood
From ancient Calvary to present hour
As the cross bore His blood Love proved its power

Until we are weak, what we cannot truly know
Is His perfected strength; He has promised it so
God, give us courage then, to surrender and seek
What we cannot truly know until we are weak

© Janet Martin

 Poetic Bloomings invites us to attempt a Swap Quatrain




The Swap Quatrain was created by Lorraine M. Kanter.
Within the Swap Quatrain each stanza in the poem must be a quatrain (four lines) where the first line is reversed in the fourth line. In addition, line 2 must rhyme with line 1, and line 3 must rhyme with line 4 and so on, BUT not repeat the same rhyming pattern on subsequent stanzas.
Rhyming pattern: AABB, CCDD, and so on.