Thursday, January 28, 2016

Thursday Thoughts on Money, Money, Money



Money, for all it may posses
Can never buy us happiness

***

Money, for all that it may boast
Can’t buy the things that matter most
Love,
Joy.
Hope.
Peace.
Forgiveness.

***

I’ve yet to see a shopping spree
That satisfies our Want
Money, the root of evil wields
And endless, endless taunt

***

We cannot serve God and mammon too
We are either servant or slave
Our life, the mirror we look into
That reflects what we crave

***

A diller, a dollar, on hill er in holler
A teacher or scholar are we
A pocket of penny-like moments to spend
Before eternity

***

Stuff, stuff, stuff, stuff
Tell me, when is it enough?!

***

It is not the amount we give
To coffers of earth
But the heart we give it with
That decides its worth

***

Come, let us reason together
If money is the idol of greed
We should not be so bent to keep
More of it than we need

***

Money and Time, We never have enough, or so it seems
Yet it is the giving of both of these that our Lord esteems

***

The only things of worth
That surpass these few days we live
Are not the treasures we stockpile on earth
But only what we give

***

We all should learn to take
We all should learn to give
For both have much to teach about
The way we ought to live

***

Pray, that our goals are not controlled
By the dollars we crave
The rich man and the beggar
Are equal within the grave

***

If we would be wealthy in what matters most
Then we would be wise to seek God’s Kingdom first
What good is vanity’s asset and boast
Where Time’s Soul-goal cannot be reimbursed

***

Lord, you perceive the heart of us
Where skin does not reveal
Full truth, yet those who love you first
Cannot Your love conceal

***

So let us consider
To what end we amount
…a most important matter
Of giving account


© Janet Martin


Humble-Pie, Anyone?





When I slip-stumble and my not-so-humble side is vexed
When plans I made are rearranged and My Loud Word is spurned
Then I concede when all is said and done, that it was best
Not because it was pleasant but because of what I learned

Life’s teacher is a creature of wise and surprising ways
How is it, my embarrassment will often teach me more
Than perches upon pedestals while kind applauders praise
And we forget what manner of person we really are

…for in the slip and stumble when our not-so-humble side
Confronts us for The Thing It Is we blush as we admit
That in spite of denying it, we are creatures of pride
Then sometimes Life’s Teacher steps in and sets us down a bit

© Janet Martin

Last night at our Study on Grace a few of us shared incidences when our 'righteous indignation' after it was spent, proved that we were the one who needed to apologize and ask to be forgiven.
Ouch with a blush-red piece of humble-pie;-)
It tastes so bad but works so well!
Still, I've never heard anyone ask for seconds...

Before the Induction







This morsel of being wide-eyed for a while
With wonder of beauty and purpose of life
Labors through our bearings in fear and delight
While carving a path for those who come behind
Like Modern-day pioneers we find our place
Settling midst the mayhem of human race
To find here a neighbor and win there a friend
While we with life’s laughter and sorrow contend

As leader and follower onward we climb
Both student and teacher in the School of Time
Blessed by a grace we cannot take credit for
This morsel of being woos us to a Door
From which there is no turning back; only this
A long compensation for that which now is
...a morsel of being wide-eyed for a bit
Before the induction to the sum of it

© Janet Martin

What are we leaving behind for those who follow?

My memories of a man whose funeral visitation I am attending today, are of a kind, patient husband in the garden with his wife. who, crippled at a young age by a disease, leaned on her cane as they weeded their vegetables...

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Winter Things...





Winter sings of simple things
 A hymn of home-sweet-harmony
Of snow-capped nook, of storybook
And a slow-savored cup of tea


Winter sings of home-spun things
Of soup slow-stirred, of fresh-baked bread
Of jigsaw puzzles, kitty-cuddles
Projects with needle and thread

…and winter sings a song of praise
For knitted things, sweaters and socks
For mitts and hats; for fireside chats
And long winter-afternoon walks

Winter sings of oven-things
Of coffee-cakes, muffins to share
Its sparkles in a frost-kissed grin
We laugh and dance like Fred Astaire


...and make snow angels in the yard
And build snowmen jolly and stout
While winter sings and whitely flings
Its notes of glitter all about


Winter sings from hoary sweep
From knee-deep pasture-land, from trees
Wearing a gown of winter-down
Where birds flutter like feather-leaves

© Janet Martin


Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Witness-bearers





We are earth’s witness-bearers to the handiwork of God
He hangs upon the heavens for our pleasure, shades of dusk
And on the walls of Time enthralls us with seasons of sod
Unmeasured are the treasures of His love and care for us

He keens the green of spring and weans the leaf from autumn’s limb
How perfect are the ways that He amazes mortal will
Where He begets with moments the highway that leads to Him
He whets the heart with hunger that only His love can fill

Man, with the means that He allows struggles to understand
The What and How of all He made; a glimpse of Who He is
The One who for the gouge of nails held out His sinless Hand
And for the guilt of all mankind saved us from hell’s abyss

Rejoice, let we with voice worship the God of heav’n and earth
Holy, holy, proclaim the Name that is above all names
Lest the horizon utters more through daylight’s death and birth
Than we with mouths to shout the Name that creation acclaims

© Janet Martin


 ‘Ah, Lord God!
Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. 
There is nothing too hard for You.
Jer.32:17




Nothing but humanity has the capacity to marvel!
God does not marvel at Himself...at I AM.
Nature does not marvel at itself,
nor do the heavens marvel at anything galactic or earthy.
Only we, the people know what it is to be filled with
 wonder and worship!