For Faith-Olympians

Whether our 'fight/race' takes us to the Olympics, Ottawa,

across the world or close to home, the ultimate finish line is the same!

Face to face with He who is the author and perfecter of Faith!

This is not for nothing

This race of faith we run

For all who remain faithful

Will hear God say 'well done'

Though full of test and trouble

This race of faith we run

Is for the joy still waiting

When God will say 'well done'

Then, though we may grow weary

We spur each other on

So we may all be present

To hear God say, 'well done' 

Could any Prize be sweeter

After faith's race is run

Than to behold faith's author

And hear Him say, 'well done'

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,

 let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us,

 and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

  2looking unto Jesus, the [a]author and [b]finisher of our faith, 

who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, 

despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Heb.12:1-2

In the Olympics, competitors see the finish-line or at least its proximity...

not so with faith; faith is certain of what it cannot see!

Heb.11:1

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,

the evidence of things not seen....

2 Corinthians 4:18

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.

For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Let Us Run by Alex MacQueen (Sung by Christina Macmillan)

Oh God, you know our first impulse is not to honor You

Human nature is not humbly inclined to pray things through

Faith is the substance of things hoped for before we receive

Where we would rather touch, taste, see, hear, smell, than just believe

To keep desire tamed and tuned to righteousness and peace

Requires us to seek You first for love’s faultless increase

The Mystery of things not seen confuses and deceives

If first impulse prevails and doubts You rather than believes

The greatest of these, love, adapts to every shape and size

Where the race set before us does not guarantee the prize

The Author and Perfecter of faith helps us to achieve

The victory only if we love, obey and believe

Oh God, You know our first impulse inclines to vindicate

When confronted with evil injustice of greed and hate

Help us to love our enemies lest we Thy Spirit grieve

For the joy set before us let us endure and believe

Let faith fuel in us an Olympian energy 

To run toward the Evidence we know but cannot see

God, free us from the sin that would a worldly view perceive

Fuel us with the certainty You give when we believe 

© Janet Martin

Of Love's True Joy

Recovering from the bug I had last weekend has left this poet a bit beaten in mind and body

(thus a few fewer poems this week)

But not without much laughter and joy amidst love's/life's lows/ frustrations. 

Yesterday I enjoyed the company of two favorite tots. 

Here they are waiting with Auntie  for some lovin' from the oven...

a little later, when asked if it tastes yummy Grand-sonny replied rather mildly,

'um, it's okay. They're not crumbly and they are homemade'

Kids are so delightfully honest 😂

These two fill this grandma's heart with utter delight and also sometimes utter frustration. 

This morning I couldn't understand why the house was FRIGID. 

Turns out my two favorite tots turned the furnace off! 

My frustration comes from thinking they are old enough to know better! 

How often God must shake His head at us 'tots'

 who are also 'old enough to know better'

 but we are a trying lot to train. 

Love covers a multitude of sins! hallelujah!

1 Pet.4:8

Above all, love each other deeply, 

because love covers over a multitude of sins.

The heavens laugh, His autograph always a perfect work of art...

Though yearning-lorn and learning worn we rise and shine and press toward

The places where God’s graces flare in the face of love oft ignored

Kindled anew, the gold and blue of mercy’s dew anoints the hour

And overflows yon height that glows with outer fringes of His pow’r

Life’s bubble-burst is trouble-cursed; joy’s sorrow is as old as time

The grin and groan of skin and bone all part of love’s rhythm and rhyme

Its highs and lows comprise, compose the faith that grows into a seed

The goodness of God’s love enough to exceed the vortex of need

The rise and fall of beck and call would crown a hollow undertow

Where bitter-sweet litters a beat of holding on and letting go

Where ebb and flow of yes and no would fuel a futile employ

But for the One that wills the dawn and fills its fount with love’s true joy

We, weighed with care thus made for prayer are darlings of our Father’s heart

The heavens laugh, His autograph always a perfect work of art

Though scoffers scorn, He authors morn, soft, soft above sight’s fret and fuss

Fresh fathoms of goodness and love cascade from God to likes of us

© Janet Martin

Off we go on a morning full of new mercy!

A Someday Song

I didn't get a picture of Victoria's car stuck. So stuck.

because we were busy shoveling, shoving, etc to no avail till

my brother came to help!

The bright side...

I simply could not come up with a third-last line for this poem

till then😅

On a regular basis tot asks for 'window up?'

...remembering the good old days of no snow

Sometimes they ask for picnics outside and I say someday...

Someday we’ll fling our windows wide

And let the glorious outdoors in

The wind will warm the countryside

Where we will all be starry-eyed

To see another spring begin

Someday we’ll take our tea outdoors

And set a table in the yard

Neath leaf-laced limb, on green grass floors

While robins sing and sunshine pours

Like scenes on a vintage postcard

Someday without a second thought

We will not need the time it takes

To bundle up each toppling tot

No missing mitten to be sought

No floor dotted with snow-melt lakes

Someday no knee-deep white on white

No breath-clouds on the chill-sharp air

No field and garden tucked in tight

Beneath a blanket of starlight

No icy walkways to beware

Someday we’ll lie with eyes half-shut

On banks beside the brimming brook

No more shov’ling ‘cause car-is-stuck

For winter will be nothing but

A picture in a storybook

© Janet Martin

A Picture of Perfection

February debuted in a blaze of glory!

 A picture of perfection is a morning, mercy-kissed...

Across the seam where earth and heavens fuse new day is drawn

Conflagration of blush and blues crescendo; it is dawn

The brunt of Being braces for fresh graces, soon the art

Of gossamer-like faces pressed to windows of the heart

A glamorous delight is kindled on yon hearth of pink

First rush of silence mingles with brushes and wells of ink

So, we delay the pressures of love’s dawn to dusky gait

Worship partakes of pleasures only God can orchestrate

A little like a flower breaks the bud once hard and cold

The trembling of an hour wakens petals that unfold

In sight and scent profusion like sweet honeysuckle mist

A picture of perfection is a morning, mercy-kissed

A little like an arbor spangled with hope’s purest wines

Like lower heights entangled in tendrils from Heaven-vines

Today tumbles in fairness, not from some strange far-off place

But, (oh, humbling awareness) from the garden of God’s grace

© Janet Martin

Thankful to be feeling, not best, but much better!

Thank-you everyone who expressed concern💗

Psalm 36:5
Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; 

and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.

Lam.3:40-41

Let us search out and examine our ways,
And turn back to the Lord;
Let us lift our hearts and hands
To God in heaven.

Let It Be...Winter!

And just like that, January 2022 is a memory!

Wow! Winter months really do seem to pass far

too swiftly to be fretted over!

(My truck-driver husband definitely begs to differ😅)

The distance between dawn and dusk 

dissolving ever-so swiftly...

We will soon be warmed with wonder

Where the orchard stark and still

Will burst with pale chiffon plunder

Of first blossom’s pastel frill

Where the creek, now sleek as satin

Will lure bare feet to its brink

And the children will laughin’

And the calf learnin’ to drink

And the mother will be singin’

In a world of blush and jade

And the garden will be ringin’

With the peal of hoe and spade

And the meadow will be gleamin’

With the aftermath of white

Where the whole world will be beamin’

With a poet’s sheer delight

Then, let winter be the willow

Bronze brush-stroked on brooding blue

Let it be a sequined pillow

The landscape of spartan hue

The midday third round of scrabble

While a vault of stars is spilled

While the birds twitter and squabble

Over feeders freshly filled

Let it be the woodstove’s glory

Days; the height of home-sweet-home

The vicarious life through story

-books; frost-fretwork of a poem

Let it be the bluff and bluster

Of Old Man Winter’s ‘hell-o-o-o ‘

Let it be the joy we muster

As he flusters plans with snow

Let it be the love of lamplight

Cup of tea and fireside chair

Knee-deep trek through rose-swept twilight

Autumn melted on the air

Let it be the wind berating

Dusk's unruffled shadow-piers

Poised between seasons in waiting

And the waft of yesteryears

Let it be the love of knowing

Every day is gone too soon

Reduced to a pale fringe glowing

Crisp dark singed with crescent moon

Let it be the rush of oceans

Tossed, white-glossed across the lea

Where Time’s salty spray is frozen

In a fray/frame of memory

© Janet Martin

Perfect For Love

The evils of this world cannot keep kindnesses at bay

Then give utmost attention to its Beauty every day

And live as if this life was heaven-lent for love alone

To be part of a mission that cannot be overthrown

To bite our tongue when stinging words could slip and hit their mark

To never mind if no one sees but God (He sees the heart)

And to do unto others as we would they do to us

To be gentle and patient; rather than shake fists and cuss

Because kindness is something that this world could use more of

No matter where we are, today is just perfect for love

© Janet Martin

Wouldn't it be wonderful if when God opens our

ledger of deeds on That Day it would reveal

one recorded kindness after another?!

2 Corinthians 5:10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; 

that every one may receive the things done in his body, 

according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

I have been the recipient of a few kindnesses already today!

My sister and daughter texted to ask how I am feeling 

after a few days being 'under the weather.'

Though not completely recovered 

I am thankful to be feeling a bit better today.

Two of my sisters and I went on a walk on Friday afternoon.

It was very cold but beautiful.

I got a bit chilled as we sat in this gorge(ous)spot and chatted for a bit.

Maybe, if I was vulnerable that was the final nudge.

Eph.4:32

And be kind to one another, 

tenderhearted, 

forgiving one another, 

even as God in Christ forgave you.

Contemplating the Incomprehensible...Love of God

 

To love You enough, God, to forget about 'me'

May this my daily desire be.

Amen

My Savior's Love

The Love of God- Mercy Me

1 John 3:1

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, 

that we should be called children of [a]God! 

Therefore the world does not know [b]us,

 because it did not know Him.

The Same Love-Paul Baroche

The love of God,

Oh, cherished thought

Enough to satisfy

To turn our gaze

From lesser ways

That deceive and defy

Love without end

Oh, what a friend

Is more faithful than He

Who bids us come

And depart from

Profitless vanity

God, rich in love

Enough, enough

Ah, may our witness prove

The joy and peace

Of want’s release

Perfected though His love

How dear and sweet

Where fears compete

With faith’s meek confidence

To trust in He

Whose love sets free

An army of defense

The love of God

Oh, wondrous thought

While endless ages roll

Our melody

Of joy will be

The love that saved the soul

The love of God

Ah, thought cannot

Such vastness comprehend

The fullness of

The kind of love

That doth sinners befriend

That doth forgive

So we may live

Each day, devoutly awed

As we embrace

His gift of grace

The boundless love of God

Such love, proven

When through His Son 

Redemption crushed the foe

Enough, enough

This God of  love 

None but his loved ones know

The pleasure of

The lesser love

Of leisure's thirsting laud

Cannot console

Or fill the hole/whole

Shaped for the love of God  

© Janet Martin

Rom.8:38-39

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[k] 

neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 

 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, 

will be able to separate us from the love of God 

that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Of Footfall Frames

Each day is a 'footfall frame'! (no! not a football game. that's in a few weeks)😅

May we pay careful attention to the echoes we are composing

that will fill its frame tonight and eventually the frame of a lifetime!

Today a man I worked for, for eight years in days gone by, Merlen Kropf is being laid to rest.

Due to ongoing covid-restriction making traditional funerals impossible,

many will pay tribute to him by lining the streets of his hometown as the funeral procession passes.

We all have our own set of precious memories to accompany our tears...

And even though he lived to a ripe old age, 

Numbered Days is such a brief stage!

While I was employed by him

Merlen honoured me by taking a genuine interest in my love for writing poetry.

(a very busy businessman! Can you believe it?!)

Below is one from the archives that they put in their Christmas grocery flyer.

He often invited me to write something at Christmas for the flyer 

or the L&M Christmas Banquet 

one of those poems being In Search of Christmas Day,

many years later recorded by Scott Woods Band

I loved taking great pride in the instore bakery showcases and shelves

Below, photos of a few old photo-album pages

(And as I met Merlen occasionally throughout the following years

he took such a kind interest in my life/family

 and paid many beautiful compliments!)

Death makes us ponder more somberly

 the footfalls we are leaving behind

(doesn't it?!!) 

on this common ground of today!

This, while a Freedom Convoy rolls toward Ottawa

and passions are running at all-time highs in many Canadian breasts...

'God keep our land glorious and free'

as we are all part of a Convoy rolling toward eternity!

What/Who is fueling our cause?!!

The footfalls of a cast soon Past are rolling through the land

Where choice becomes the voice that draws its pictures in time’s sand

Where recompense of consequence always follows the act

No matter how we try to thwart the matters of this fact

Then pray as we step onto dawn’s fresh stage beneath our feet

For love, more kind and tender love for everyone we meet

How easily we prove by choice, what whets our appetites

As we move toward finish lines where we have set our sights

Desire is a fire that burns in each one of us

While morning unto morning turns into The Day That Was

Then pray desire’s flames are fueled not by spite or greed

But by love, kind and tender love for we of common need

The rise and fall of reason rolls with the call of the cause

Where carriages of Deathless Soul are like frail wisps of gauze

That appear for a little while and then we are no more

The echo of footfalls soon muffled by Now’s crowds that roar

Then pray, as each today is soon snuffed by a starry sea

For love, more kind and tender love to be our legacy

How long the Aftermath of Moment holds its frozen sway

How ever-so-important is the toll of day-to-day

Where, God, not time, is on our side and works for our good

If we love Him; then pray we love each other like we should

Before this life God grants becomes ‘their’ flood of tears that brim

Where how we love each other proves the love we have for Him

© Janet Martin

This verse is included at the end of Merlen's obituary

For God so loved the world

that He gave his only begotten Son

that whosoever believes in Him should not perish

but have everlasting life

John 3:16

Oh pray our lives may mirror His love in us

to our fellowman!

Matt.5:43-48

You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor ⁱ and hate your enemy.’

 44But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

 45that you may be children of your Father in heaven. 

He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, 

and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 

46If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? 

Are not even the tax collectors doing that?

 47And if you greet only your own people,

what are you doing more than others? 

Do not even pagans do that? 

48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.