SUMS

Do We…

Do we too quickly
Forget those we sudden lost?
Do we count our love
Easily replaced by one
Who comes new into our lives?
Do we pray Heaven
Has sweet mercy on everyone?
Days are short, life brief,
Have we given in and up
Because change is difficult?
Are we listening
To the cares others admit?
Are souls important,
Do we point them to matters
Concerning eternity?
Do we pray the end
Of war, fear, pain, loss, hunger?
Maybe we should act –
We could become bodies
Ministering toward LIFE!

It came to me that the Coronavirus crisis has some parallels to the devastation we felt after September 11th. Not so many were lost on 911, but we came together, forgetting all our divisions. Globally we need to do the same to recover and make the world better than it was before this disaster.

Tonight, I put on the music that came out to raise money for victims of 911. If you have some of those discs or MP3s loaded somewhere, maybe you could give them a listen.

Remember, if we all work together, there is almost nothing the people of the world are unable to accomplish.

Desertion

I do not like my attitude
Because the more sheltered,
Fragile, aloof, undone, I become,
Shunning the very who
“I am” without answers enough
To continue discourse, going on.
The blanks on the form, incomplete,
My chapters – scattered pages,
Ransacked by a masked bandit,
Spouting platitudes, cruel absurdities,
And a following merciless wind.
I puzzle, is there reason to
Gather the shattered parcels
Beginning again, or static flowing,
Starting over from wherever
This desolate evocation may lead?
Exhaustion holds, reigns, a tyrant,
Denying will, energy to
Accomplish anything more than
Lying hidden under a patchwork
Become the basis of my identity.
No, no one wishes to know anything
Less than living aglow with joy,
Shiny, lately seemly, outfitted
In the precious, finest, able
To overcome, become a winner.
No lodging for suffering through,
Toiling to bail what has sunken,
With trouble, misuse, neglect.
Resurrections are only for long ages
Gone, because no one knows how
Love, the price for raising dead
And dying can be suitably applied,
The parts lost once meant
To play victory, wandered far astray.
Today fades within a moment
Into the garlanded past, yesterday.

Abbreviated

Richard’s beautiful Orange Tabby, who is never entirely sure I am okay. Tonight I agree with him because I seem to have acquired a toothache that is also a headache.

I returned my DirecTv equipment today, so I have cut the cord and sunk the satellite. The amount of television I watch is so minimal; I probably will never miss it.

I do recommend streaming Peaky Blinders, Good Omens, and The Expanse. I only finished Good Omens. On Audible, I loved The Sandman. If you gathered, I am a Neil Gaiman fan; you read clues well.

The poem so heavy with images was an experimental rewrite; I probably should post the original of Same. I am on my phone tonight without my computer because I have been spending some respite time with Richard. It will wait. I do not like poetry on mobile because it always inserts extra spaces when I write.

Prompt: Tell someone you love that you do.

It Is Better…

I will put a little different spin on this, but the quote is: “It is better to burn out than to fade away.”

My thoughts run like this, if we belong to Jesus, we are candles burning that point toward the Savior. Often we suffer depression, grief, mental anguish, physical pain, existential loss, all the things that occur when living in the world.

Even though we are God’s children, we live here like everyone. Christ in His wisdom put us here to exemplify the depths of His love. He has not abandoned us. Within us burns God’s love; the Holy Spirit lives in us.

We may come to places too terrible to bear, pain that overwhelms us, desertion by those we love. Even so, we can abide in the hope given in Christ Jesus that we have an eternity that will outshine any difficult circumstance we encounter here. Life on Earth is only a beginning, and the promise of Heaven will exceed all our hopes and dreams.

Those who do not have the hope of eternity with Jesus will fade away. As with all that death touches, these will turn to dust.

But, the living, hope, there is an opportunity to assure eternal destinations. It is not God’s desire that any should perish. Jesus came that all might have life and it more abundantly. He took our sins to the cross and died in our stead. Jesus arose in victory. If we believe in Christ and ask Him to take charge of us, He will, and we will not see the second death but will spend forever with the Lord and His saints.

It is only a small thing that we endure, for we often receive miracles. Oh, what wonder to know Jesus. Burn bright, be a light.