Something Worth Striving For...

My wee, little spot

On earth’s blue-bitty dot

Was never designed

For anyone else

Therefore, by God’s grace

In each day I face

I want to be

My very best self

© Janet Martin

With Holy Awe

...for the mortal it feels impossible to understand the close distance of eternity. Kara Tippetts~

Then teach us, Lord
To love and live
Each day You give
By mercy's law
And help us to
Humbly embrace
Each day of grace
With holy awe

Janet~

Then, At the Very Thought Of It

From this...

to this...

 I needed to dig out some 'green-gold bliss'. we are in a long deep, cold spell...

Beneath a sleek and silver sweep

The songs of summer soundly sleep

Tuning the tempest-stricken deep

With hope of spring and things to come

Then, at the very thought of it

The frigid noon-day thaws a bit

And draws the mind to pause and sit

Warmed by a sigh where zephyrs strum

And where mute tree-limbs creak and groan

With winter’s brute- bleak monotone

A gentler melody enthrones

The place that waits for green-gold bliss

Then suddenly, the heart laughs, wild

With hope of foot-loose summer-child

For where ten-thousand sun-beams smiled

Our famished faces sense spring’s kiss

We press our wishes to Time’s glass

Where snow-swaddled arrangements pass

In twirling, swirling choruses

Like minuets of hide-and-seek

While earth, a meek ice-mantled rose

Let’s old Man Winter tweak Her nose

And toes with howls; for oh, she knows

She holds a garden in Her cheek

© Janet Martin

Of Preparing For The Inevitable

When time has all its pockets drained

And its last hour spent

Where Final Winter has complained

Across earth’s continent

When high and low and in between

Are all one and the same

And Destiny unveils its scene

With He from whence we came

 

….when Time has granted its last plea

And planted its last bloom

And everything is history

Upon an ageless tomb

Save for the soul which time can never

Order with its law

…when we stand where Forever stills

Our arguments with awe

…when all that was will be no more

And all that IS remains

When God His love and wrath will pour

Once and for all; Amen

When Time is rolled up like a scroll

And immortality

Proves the existence of the soul

Pray then, where will you be?

© Janet Martin

Will we believe boldly

or ignore God's Grace coldly?

There is no in between!

...just as there is no in between

Heaven and Hell...

We mourn with those who mourn

but

not as those without hope

"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven .....great is your reward in heaven." Matt 5: 10-12

Image Source

But ye, beloved, remember ye the words which have been spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;

That they said to you, In the last time there shall be mockers, walking after their own ungodly lusts.

 These are they who make separations, sensual, having not the Spirit.

 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,

 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

Jude 17-21

This Is It

This is not it:

The grief and grit

And love and laughing

Rise and fall

Of hold-release

Of war and peace

Of time’s four-season

Madrigal

This is not it

This is not it;

This breathing bit

Of bumping-bruising

Bittersweet

Of bud to bloom

Before the plume

Spills in still slumber

At our feet

This is not it

This is not it:

The bleeding whit

Of 'why'; this rising-

Setting sun

That lights then dims

A fight that brims

With life and death

Barely begun

This is not it

This is not it:

Lie, stand and sit

Morning-to-night

Again, again

Triumph to loss

Time’s albatross

That teaches us

Pleasure and pain

This is not it

This is not it

This fleeting fit

Of giving-taking

Is a door

Not back to earth

But to the birth

Of unfathomed

Forevermore

This. is. it

© Janet Martin

 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 2 Peter 3:14

When my son asked me what I thought of a movie I saw on the week-end (American Sniper) I told him that what I saw was a whole lot of souls transported instantly to meet Jesus, and Jesus doesn't take sides; He loves everyone equally. I told him that I realized a-fresh what an awful thing war is, and what an awful cost, freedom. 

Of Learned Pleasure

I admire those who work long after the need to has passed. Read this line here at Raining Iguanas…

They do not watch the clock

Or keep a list of ‘give’

To tally how much is enough

…they simply love to live

They do not think in terms

Of ‘barest minimum’

But lay the ground-work for a world

Of seasons yet to come

No half-hearted attempts

No job too big or small

For they have understood the good

In answering The Call

 

…and from their heart and soul

This pleasure they have learned

Will ever be a greater joy

Than any dollar earned

© Janet Martin

I had the privilege of being raised in a home where the love of work was something we learned from a whistling dad and a singing mother.

The quote in the photo was taught patiently.