My, my, but mortal is master of disaster,
when lured by lust of the flesh, lust of the eye and pride of life!
(For everything in the world--the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the
eyes,
and the pride of life--
comes not from the Father
but from the
world.)
1 John 2:16
It heaves upon the crest of earth in birth and death-wrought
spree
It laughs and grieves abreast the breadth of immortality
As Time set in four-season spans twirls like a carousel
And man embarks and exits ‘neath the tolling of its bell
Where we prove, as we learn to love, the nature of the
beast
Where deathless soul instills the glove upon which
moments feast
And none of us can circumvent the Hour that must be
When we are called to shed the tent of This Mortality
It boasts; oh God forgive us when we forget Mercy’s girt
As we dare to puff out our chests and strut our stuff of
dirt
As we forget to smote our breasts and cry out, ‘what is man’
As we ignore the Author and Finisher of our ‘can’
As we make wealth an idol rather than worship’s employ
As we take without uttering one phrase of praise or joy
Where grace is always greater than This Mortality’s mess
And God is always faithful to forgive if we confess
Each travels through this world but once toward a binding
goal
When This Mortality becomes the chariot of the soul
Where for now we must all partake of trust’s manifold tiers
As waves of hope and heartache surge and merge with days
and years
While dreams are dashed and born anew and lashed by winds
of change
And all of us are headed to what Last Gasp will estrange
As we enter that which remains life’s Greatest Mystery
When Mortal sheds its rags and puts on Immortality
© Janet Martin
For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
When
the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable
and the mortal
with immortality, then the saying that is written will come to pass:
“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”…
1 Cor.15:52-54
