Whilst Sailing Life's Seas on the Sneeze of a Breeze (or Of This)

 So much joy

...and so much sorrow

where one is the other

awaits in the morrow...

So much to love 

in the living Of This;

Time is an ocean 

of moment-shaped stars

Dashing and splashing, 

now kick and now kiss

Surging and merging 

with Bygone’s blue bars

Holding and molding, 

so daring and wearing

And bolder, the older 

we get, so it seems

Peering and veering 

and sparing and sharing

Like wayfaring pilgrims 

on day-baring streams

So much to see 

in the lending Of This

Color and dolor, 

hunger, happiness

Giggling and wiggling, 

now burden, now bliss

Knee-slapping, hand-clapping, 

mouth-flapping mess

Ranting and planting,

granting pants with patches

Hoping while coping 

with ‘alright’ and ‘nope’

Dreaming and scheming,  

batten down the hatches

Trying to balance 

on budget’s tight rope

So much to lose 

in the learning of this

Carefully, prayerfully 

pause and proceed

Preaching and teaching, 

 revering what is

Knowing the Difference 

between want and need

Smiling whilst whiling 

the miles into mist

So much to weather, 

un-tether, retie

Skimming through glimmers 

where shimmers untwist

Into a wake of 

heart-aching good-bye

So much to miss 

in the leaving Of This

Laughter that echoes

 long past curtain-close

Fingers that linger 

to trace an abyss

Clinging to Time’s stinging 

nettle and rose

Gladder and sadder 

and dearer and sheerer

Dripping and slipping 

through Tempo that carves

With swirl and ebb and furl

a stranger’s mirror

Quivers of river 

like gossamer scarves

© Janet Martin

Call to Worship

 We tried to make the most of one deliciously sunny-warm day

before more rain-days.

Worship, thankfully is NOT weather/whether-dependent!

Come, worship He who instills wonder-worlds within bud-orbs and seeds

 Hope’s Chariot of morn is borne through starry streets by Mercy’s steads

It sweeps the canvas of the heavens with colours that steal our breath

Come, worship He who made a way that we may overcome dark death

Through He who loves us so He gave the best He had; His only Son

To break the curse of sin and triumph over what Evil had done

Come, worship He who sets the sea between the borders of dry land

And moves in high and holy ways that we will never understand

Come, raise the banner of His praise above Intention’s broken bars

For even our worst of days are cupped in Hands that wear love’s scars

Come, worship He who feeds the birds and sees the little sparrow fall

Who clothes the fields with fairest flowers yet still loves us most of all

Come, worship He who gives glad reason to get up and try once more

As from the whirring wheel of seasons streams of countless blessing pour

Aha! May’s apple-orchards spill pink-popcorn-like kernels to bloom

Hurrah, the world so long so bare fills like an Artist’s fine Showroom

Where right before our very eyes His perfect poetry takes shape

For His Beauty is without guise; it leaves our mouths and minds agape

Come, worship He who lavishes our lives with more than we can grasp

And does not leave us comfortless when trouble tries our feeble clasp

But grants exactly what we need exactly when His wisdom deems

Where even in the darkest place His light of grace and goodness streams

Where, on this blue dot in the middle of a myriad of stars

He who made people in His image knows exactly where we are

Then come, and worship He who delights in the music of the soul

From hearts of humble gratitude in hymns, His Majesty extol

For He alone is worthy; by no other name can man be saved

Upon his brow and hands Salvation’s scars of suff’ring are engraved

Then come and worship He who, when we fail, abides faithful and true

Where fear can find no foothold for what He has promised He will do

Come, worship He whose evidence only the greatest fool disdains

And chooses through blind ignorance to struggle in sin’s hopeless chain

Come worship He who hates the sin but loved the sinner unto death

Then worship Him with everything that is instilled with life and breath

…who threads gold through cold rock and coal deep in the bed of earth

And fathers mortal’s wordless wonder in the miracle of birth

Come worship He who through the innocence of children, teaches us

And who, oft through calamity, breaks through our pride and reaches us

Who takes the way we are and makes us worthy of Heaven’s reward

If we believe; then we receive the inheritance of the Lord

So, come and worship He who is without beginning, without end

The God of all eternity who longs to be our dearest friend

© Janet Martin

Ps.136

 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
His love endures forever.
² Give thanks to the God of gods.
His love endures forever.
³ Give thanks to the Lord of lords:
His love endures forever.

⁴ to him who alone does great wonders,
His love endures forever.
⁵ who by his understanding made the heavens,
His love endures forever.
⁶ who spread out the earth upon the waters,
His love endures forever.
⁷ who made the great lights—
His love endures forever.
⁸ the sun to govern the day,
His love endures forever.
⁹ the moon and stars to govern the night;
His love endures forever.

¹⁰ to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt
His love endures forever.
¹¹ and brought Israel out from among them
His love endures forever.
¹² with a mighty hand and outstretched arm;
His love endures forever.

¹³ to him who divided the Red Sea^[a] asunder
His love endures forever.
¹⁴ and brought Israel through the midst of it,
His love endures forever.
¹⁵ but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea;
His love endures forever.

¹⁶ to him who led his people through the wilderness;
His love endures forever.

¹⁷ to him who struck down great kings,
His love endures forever.
¹⁸ and killed mighty kings—
His love endures forever.
¹⁹ Sihon king of the Amorites
His love endures forever.
²⁰ and Og king of Bashan—
His love endures forever.
²¹ and gave their land as an inheritance,
His love endures forever.
²² an inheritance to his servant Israel.
His love endures forever.

²³ He remembered us in our low estate
His love endures forever.
²⁴ and freed us from our enemies.
His love endures forever.
²⁵ He gives food to every creature.
His love endures forever.

²⁶ Give thanks to the God of heaven.
His love endures forever.

Heaven-bent

Sometimes the best way to give is through something we’ve never had

By relinquishing personal ‘druthers’ for the benefit of others

Let’s spend today giving away in copious amounts

The best we have of do and say for that’s what really counts

Let’s give; the only thing that we can keep of dust-to-dust

In treasure stored beyond this world where it will never rust

For all we have and hold of gold and silver cannot save

The soul when it succeeds the body tendered to the grave

Let’s make the most of moments, not by what we hoard and heap

But by giving away the only thing that we can keep

For if we invest only in the things that we can see
What will we do then, when we step into eternity?

© Janet Martin

 No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other,
or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve both God and money.
Matt.6:24

 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Mark 3:36

 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, 

where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, 

where moth and rust do not destroy,

 and where thieves do not break in and steal. 

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 

Matt.6:19-21

The Way Time Goes

They're in bloom...bleeding hearts; the flowers that look like our hearts sometimes feel

because that's what time does.

The way it keeps us on our toes and makes us wipe our eyes and nose

And takes all that we’ve got as we learn ‘that’s the way time goes’

The way it twirls us ‘round like leaves spiraling to the ground

While moments weave heart-harbored sheaves from fronds of sight and sound

The way it startles us with years as what we hold soon disappears

In tug of hug-wars as we bear the scars of smiles and tears

The way it reaches through our youth with manners both kind and uncouth

As it teaches time’s fundamental, unchangeable Truth

The way it wakes in us an urge, where past, present and future merge

In melodies that surge through us in sentimental dirge

© Janet Martin

It's the time when another school year has or is winding down and with it the startling

re-awareness of the fleetness of Time!