Saturday, February 27, 2021

Disappointment's Catalyst


There is no getting around it; life is full of disappointments!
The future as it passes seldom looks like we imagined!
Without utter faith in God, hope is a lost cause!

Disappointment can be as minor as unwanted weather
and fender-benders
and as major as life and death matters!


This life is lavished with beauty (often in the broken),
and happiness (often full of holes)
and little time-outs (often when we least want them)


This is one of my battle-songs 
when things come along
I cannot understand
The first line is 
'Here's my heart, Lord, Speak what is true'
We cannot however, hear what is true unless we
turn to His Word and hide it
in our hearts so we do not sin against Him, 
as we surrender personal opinion and interpretation to


Thy word have I hid in mine heart, 
that I might not sin against thee.
Psalm 119:11

Disappointment does not cater to the hopes and dreams of we 
Weathering, in spite of wishes, the brunt of reality 
What a fete of faith and labour paves the street from here to where 
We shake off the dust of trusting and take off the yoke of prayer 

We are not equipped to carry more than one day at a time 
Worry drains us of The Very Present Help we need to climb 
Where no one can build a barrack that can thwart life’s suffering 
But where faith always has access to the Shelter of God’s Wing 

And to put on the full armour that will fit us for the fight 
On an altar of surrender to the One who paid sin’s price 

Disappointment is most often the unwanted catalyst 
God allows in hopes to soften hearts and rebellion’s clenched fist 
What a fete of hard-fought yielding to the higher, perfect ways 
As we learn to trust the Giver and the keeper of our days 

© Janet Martin 

Psalm 121:5
The LORD is your keeper; 
The LORD is your shade at your right hand.



Friday, February 26, 2021

Aurora Awe

 





This is the day that the Lord has made;
    let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm118:24

Shake off the dust of dreams waylaid 
Fling wide hope’s hoary door 
For this, the day the Lord has made 
Has never been before 

Reach past the cast of wave-washed sand 
To what is grand and new 
For where we go He holds our hand 
If we but ask Him to 

And though we cannot see what waits 
To tune trust’s latest buzz 
The One who draws ajar gauze-gates 
Of mist-kissed morning does 

© Janet Martin 

So many fresh cares to fill our prayers, right?!
Seems like so many young moms in this community 
are struggling with sudden, hard health-crosses

Made me look up this hymn this morning
when I cried 'Why?'
by Charles W. Naylor


God’s way is best; if human wisdom
A fairer way may seem to show,
’Tis only that our earth-dimmed vision
The truth can never clearly know.

Refrain:
God’s way is best, I will not murmur,
Although the end I may not see;
Where’er He leads I’ll meekly follow,
God’s way is best, is best for me.

Had I the choosing of my pathway,
In blindness I should go astray,
And wander far away in darkness,
Nor reach that land of endless day.

He leadeth true; I will not question,
Though through the valley I shall go;
Though I should pass through clouds of trial,
And drink the cup of human woe.

God’s way is best; heart, cease thy struggling
To see and know and understand;
Forsake thy fears and doubts, but trusting,
Submit thyself into His hand.

Thy way is best, so lead me onward,
My all I give to Thy control;
Thy loving hand will truly guide me,
And safe to glory bring my soul.







Thursday, February 25, 2021

Awe's Oceanic Aftermath=Art aka Worship

 

Completely and perfectly awed 
By the grand handiwork of God 










Dusk draws our eyes westward until 
Day falls beneath earth’s windowsill 
Night snuffs its picture like a flame 
That disappears from whence it came 

Where we are left to contemplate 
The crumb-sum on time’s dinner plate 
Like moments turned to memories 
From joy’s startling complexities 

How holes and hues of happiness 
Transform our views of more and less 
How wealth is not in what we hold 
But in the worth of moment-gold 

And how we are too very small 
To cup the wonder of it all 
Completely and perfectly awed 
By the grand handiwork of God 

Awe’s oceans seem to rush the heart 
Insisting on becoming art 
And so, we sing, paint, pen and gaze
 Until oceans turn into praise

© Janet Martin 





Prelude to the Awakening



Whoa!! 

The morning dissolved in errands that started at sun-up, 


then to a batch of bread...


a pan of granola bars


(recipe note: substitute dried cranberries with  any dried fruit, or chipits)
and if I don't have barley flakes I substitute quick oats and ground flax seed


...also, speaking from experience, the 20 min. cool time is optional if you want a sample sooner😀





and the whole morning had intermittent explosions/interruptions of harmonica music 
(my new toy thanks to some Christmas gift$$$ 
and an invitation to play for the kids at church on Sunday)!


Hello, heaven’s halo gleaming 
From a vault unplumbed, unfurled 
Like a fount of sequins streaming 
Through Want’s dreaming, scheming world 
Where progression and tradition 
Engage in clashing ideals 
Locking horns in opposition 
While time spins and thins its wheels 

Hello morning, Mercy’s token 
Fixed where every eye can see 
God has spoken, darkness broken 
By Ageless Authority 
He bestows gracious oblation 
Dawn throbs with love’s melody 
Pouring like an invitation 
Beckoning ‘come unto Me’ 

Hello, hope and heartache tango 
Teaching us the art of trust 
How to hold and how to let go 
In this dance of dust-to-dust 
Hello, happiness and hunger 
Learning love’s rhythm and rhyme 
Where no one is growing younger 
In the arms of Father Time 

Hello, season-circuit rider
On a phantom carousel
Of spring, summer, autumn, winter
Until we bid time farewell
Farewell, legacy-composer  
Farewell, fleeting breath-by-breath
Hello, morning drawing closer
The awakening in death

© Janet Martin 

Listened to this song from my daughter's playlist
this morning... 





Psalm 136:1
Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! 
For His mercy endures forever.

1 Chronicles 16:34
Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; 
His loving devotion endures forever.


Psalm 145:9
The LORD is good to all; 
His compassion rests on all He has made.

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Sacred Synopsis

 

True love does not come easily...
but with God
who is love
and loves you and me

the challenge?
the verses below;
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. 
Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,
not looking to your own interests 
but each of you to the interests of the others.
Phil.2:3-4

That is why we labor and strive, 
because we have put our hope in the living God, 
who is the Savior of all people, 
and especially of those who believe.
1 Tim.4:10

Oh, what  reason to shine!


The best we have for rich or poor wherever life may lead 
Is to offer the best we have to thought and word and deed 

But thought and word and deed will not be what they ought to be 
Until we entrust want and need to God’s authority 

For want and need will always be part of this human race 
Beneath God’s kind authority of love, mercy and grace 

Where without faith in He whose love, mercy and grace sustain 
The grounds of hope and joy and peace, our best will be in vain 

Because no matter what we win it will not be enough 
Until the best we have begins with God, for He is love 

And love makes possible the best that we can ever be
By faith in He who grants through grace, love's kind humility

© Janet Martin

1 Tim.6:6-10

But godliness with contentment is great gain.
7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.
8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.
9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap 
and into many foolish and harmful desires t
hat plunge people into ruin and destruction. 
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. 
Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith 
and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Hoar-frost Heaven...


These photos turned out to be just the start of Jack Frost's artwork
on Sunday morning!
By the time we left for church wonder was dizzy with delight, 
gazing hither and yon upon sheer perfection!
(More photos here)





Frosty fringes gild glossed hinges of a weathered winter-gate 
Gracing fences, tracing branches with vestige of crystal lace 
Teasing poets with a show of nature’s ‘look but do not touch’ 
Where the air is fairly bursting with the font of Jack Frost’s brush 

Worship thunders where awe wonders at frost-fretwork whisper-thin 
Earth showcasing interlacing detail of woven welkin 
Where nothing is ordinary or of very lowly class 
As we gaze in sheer amazement at a landscape etched in glass 

Hoar-halation crowns creation with boreal ambience 
Woodlands glisten with impressions of angel-host radiance 
Hill and hollow frilled and swaddled in a dazzling vertigo 
Once again and without question nature’s pageant steals the show 

Once again its flawless anthem raises praises to the One
Who is Alpha and Omega and will never be outdone
So we stutter from this gutter of utter depravity/dependency 
Where a vision of redemption grants a glimpse of purity 

© Janet Martin 


“Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the LORD,
 “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow;
 Though they are red like crimson, 
They shall be as wool.
Isa.1:18

Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; 
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Monday, February 22, 2021

Time's Sacred No-return Return


A small glimpse of a bit of recent 'pleasure-treasure!'







Do you ever get the sense 
that earth is a boat
and we're passengers 
on time's massive float
being drawn breath by breath 
toward a shore
through the access called Death
to Forevermore?





Time draws its barge along 
on straits of day to day 
Beneath the chime of golden gong 
or clime of lowered gray 
We grapple with A Sail 
of Utmost Gravity 
Because Time’s sacred charge entails 
far more than we can see 

Time tugs its transient bark 
‘neath arcs of dark and light 
Where we are far more than tourists 
on floats of sound and sight 
We wear God-granted grace 
as breath-tones rise and fall 
And bear the very common place 
of duty’s beck and call

Time flies through outstretched arms 
and eyes wide with surprise 
It breezes through fists clenched against 
its resolute demise
It tosses plans awry 
and teaches us to trust
The invisible hand that makes 
visible dust to dust

Time takes its telling toll 
on mortal’s temple-gate 
Where carriages of deathless soul 
have much to contemplate 
For This, no pleasure cruise, 
transports us to a Shore 
Where every single passenger 
embarks forevermore 

Time steals our breath and seals 
its aftermath in years 
How swift its gift of empty reels 
fills up and disappears 
While heart-strings groan and fray, 
and pray, we start to sense 
The absolute approaching of 
That Day of Recompense 

Time ticks around the clock 
but cannot tell how far 
Or near to the most searing dock 
and final pier we are 
To meet the destiny 
of This Fleeting Sojourn 
Where verily, eternity 
is time's sacred return

© Janet Martin 

Some encouragement while we 'sail'...
(Imagine if the passage below said
 'to the churches of Canada' in place of Thessalonians
and this could/would be said of us from its letter-writer?!!)

2 Thess.1:1-5
Paul, Silas[a] and Timothy,
*To the church of the Thessalonians 
in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters,
[b] and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, 
and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. 
Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance 
and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.
 All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, 
and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, 
for which you are suffering. 


2 Thess.2:16-17
May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, 
who loved us and by his grace gave us 
eternal encouragement and good hope, 
encourage your hearts and strengthen you 
in every good deed and word.


Saturday, February 20, 2021

Whisper-Soft

 We woke to a whisper-soft world!

Happy One-month-till-spring-Saturday!!

The sun has a lot of gold beaming to do this year to get rid of white whispers...😊




White whispers cling to everything 
Like featherdown from angel-wings 
White whispers blanket barren limbs 
Like notes composing argent hymns 
White whispers deck hill, rill and dell 
Like stars that lost their grip and fell 
White whispers muffle sound, like feet 
A-dancing, down a downy street 
White whispers sparkle like a sweep 
Of diamond-dazzle-streams, knee-deep 
White whispers tumble, twirl and waft 
Until the world is whisper-soft 

© Janet Martin