Free Indeed

What good, that morbid pity that inflicts our hidden core

And causes us to tremble as if God’s grace needed more

…like abstinence from laughter or the joys that we estrange

In guilt-appointed penance for the things we cannot change

What good to fret about regret and doubt the truth of He

Who said,’ indeed, who I set free will truly be set free’

So then, pray love inspires us to follow where He leads

Not to pay for redemption but to do as His love pleads

What good is vain religion; like an ombudsman for naught

And what is hope if all we grope are gods wrought within thought?

Alas, alas, would be the apex of our numbered days

If Circumstance would dictate when, if or how much man pays

What good would come of anything, without the grace of God

And who of us are more or less; we are equal through blood

…the blood of He who sets us free; then we are free indeed

To serve our Lord and Master through each other’s humble need

© Janet Martin

 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:36

  

I esp. love this version of this hymn partly because it features the harmonica, the one musical instrument I learned to play :)

Finding 'Paris'

Who doesn't want to go to Paris, right? But, what if...

Imagine if the towers that taunt us from overseas

Were really just the flowers and the wind-tossed summer trees

Imagine if The Louvre or the castles flanking streams

Became the satisfaction of bare feet splashing through dreams

And Time were a gondola, we its passengers abroad

And overcome with wonder at the scenes which Present lauds

Then we would be quite humbled; second-think our discontent

If we found our ‘Paris’ in the Now that Time has lent

© Janet Martin

Inspired by this post by Jeff Goins

Request

Lord, help us beautify this day

Not with cold gold or molded clay

But with the things we do or say

Let’s beautify this little day

For it will never pass again

Its lilt of sun, its gilt of rain

A gifted Once; its joy or pain

Will never pass this way again

Then let us humbly do our best

Regardless of its test or quest

May we with honor earn The Rest

Of those who humbly did their best

© Janet Martin

 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. 

And what does the LORD require of you? 

To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8

The Life We Live...

The new bus-driver went z-o-o-o-o-ming by our lane this morning. Matt thought it very entertaining to watch her reversing from afar... 'please make it easy for her and run up to the next lane'! I begged, Imagine she's your mother and be nice!! 

They laughed, then did...run up to the next lane:)

It’s not the color of the sky

That makes our day; it’s not the why

Of hours rendered to our hold

Or whether we are young or old

Or where we live or what we eat

That makes our lives bitter or sweet

But this; no matter who we are

Or what we do, time tips its jar

…and thus, in the response we give

Becomes for us the life we live

© Janet Martin

Queen Ann and Kindred

Her eyes, half shut lures wanderers and poets, for they know

How soon the green of summer’s queen must don a shroud of snow

Her beckoning the reckoning where thought and hunger spar

As Duty vexes Dreamer with The Very Things That Are

The lover of Her stutters; satisfies the lack of words

With Sight and Touch; Her flower mothers broods of bloom and birds

As sky divides the night and day; poets pause, then adjust

Their points of pen accordingly because they know they must

The berried vine cleaves where the leaf of it withers and dies

And all The Things people pursue imitate its demise

Where now Her eyes half-shut suggest the imminence of sleep

Her gown scatters in tatters only Mother Earth can keep

© Janet Martin