Life offers us numerous opportunities for failure, humiliation and embarrassment. It’s so easy to lose our joy over such things, fall prey to burning waves of shame and dark shades of introspection that make us want to hide away.
When we allow the sting of chagrin to steal our peace, we begin to fear for our standing and reputation, worry about what others will think, and sink into discouragement at the thought of losing their good opinion of us.
While we all yield in different ways to sin, if we focus most on failure, we can lose not only our sense of joy, but peace and rest within. Then God’s mercy and forgiveness can also pass us by, as we hide away in guilt and shame instead of rejoicing in the reason why Jesus came.
Our lives and peace of mind can become spoiled when we are upset, depressed and dissatisfied with our behaviour, if we forget that holy conviction comes from God and is designed to lead us into repentance and forgiveness, the touch of His love—whereas condemnation is from the enemy of our souls, leading us to deep inner misery and keeps us stuck in an endless cycle of guilt and shame.
The haiku below are my response to that kind of situation, (one I find myself in more often than I care to count!) and a means of pointing the way back to experiencing peace and joy again….
Spoiled
Intimacy, joy
will be spoiled if we allow
chagrin entry now
©joylenton2017
Free joy
Take life on the chin
Don’t let chagrin rule and reign
Free the joy within
©joylenton2017
Embrace inner peace
Joy is within reach
if we leave chagrin behind
embrace inner peace
©joylenton2017
Joining with Poet Master, Ronovan and fellow poetic friends as we share our take on this week’s prompt of ‘Chagrin&Joy’. Just click here to join us there.
“You will show me the path that leads to life; your presence fills me with joy and brings me pleasure forevermore” ~ Psalm 16:11 GNT
Poetry Joy 
Reblogged this on Pastor Michael Moore's Blog and commented:
Poignant food for thought, Joy ❣️❣️
Oh yes, I specialise in giving my readers food for thought..lol! Thank you for sharing this post, Michael. You are such an encouraging friend! 🙂 ❤
Dear Joy,
I love what you’ve done with the Haiku prompts for chagrin and joy this week! And your graphics are so beautiful, to capture the feelings that each poem invokes. Especially the first one, with those thoughts about allowing in the chagrin–how often that happens in my heart before I even realize what I’ve done! But once I’ve started down that path of annoyance with myself, it can seem almost impossible to step away from it. I am so thankful that God’s inner peace IS within reach for us! Just as surely as spring comes and brings the beauty of the blossom with it, He will bless us with His forgiveness after the storm of our failures. I am so thankful you were able to join in with the Haiku prompts again this week, Dear Friend! I am praying that stamina and less pain have begun to settle in for you, and for your husband as well! Love and Hugs xoxo
Dear Bettie, thank you so much for your kind and generous words! I try to use my own images where possible, though I must admit to jazzing them up a bit. You are not alone in allowing chagrin to steal your peace. It slips into my heart unnoticed most of the time, then I wake up to its effects within and seek help from God to eject it swiftly! Yes, how thankful we are for God’s wonderful forgiveness, so rich and free, especially “after the storm of our failures” as you so aptly say. It’s been a joy to write a few haiku again, because my M.E hypersensitive eyes were really playing up badly at the start of the week and I could hardly look at a screen, never mind write, read or comment anywhere. But God… healed them enough for me to share my words again and to get to read a few of my friends’ posts as well! Pain is receding a bit too, praise God, and some stamina returning. We would be all the poorer without your faithful prayers. Sending love, hugs and deep appreciation for you across the pond. May you have a blessed weekend, lovely friend. xoxo
Yes, condemnation is from the enemy of our souls. He’s always trying to steal our peace, isn’t he? So often God reminds me there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. These are such encouraging poems, Joy. The colorful, cheerful flowers encourage joy, too. 🙂 Love and hugs to you!
Yes, indeed, Trudy, and how easily we let the enemy gain admittance sometimes! I’m especially vulnerable when suffering from extra pain and fatigue. It can be quite hard to maintain a positive, faith-filled attitude when a body feels weak and aches so much and we want to do more than we are capable of! I’m so pleased you like the poems. I hoped the images would add to their meaning and be a cheerful sign of hope and joy rising, as it does in spring. Blessings, love and hugs to you, sweet friend! 🙂 xo
Joy, I love your take on these words this week. I like how they easily move from the first and on to the last. You start with a warning not to allow chagrin to enter, then you share how to find the joy and finally how that joy comes right alongside inner peace. So much truth here in so few words. I also loved your graphics.
Many blessings to you and much love! xoxo
Gayl, I’m so glad you liked this week’s haiku offering and I really appreciate your kind encouragement! The haiku came slowly over a few days and seemed to follow one another quite naturally. Don’t you just love it when things fall into place like that with very little effort on our part? In fact, the more I ‘try’ to write something and stress or strain over the words, the worse they tend to be. Whereas those that flow easily are usually better in their execution and only need a little tweak from me at most. God is so good to equip and inspire us in our weakness! Many blessings and much love to you, dear poetic friend. xoxo
” if we forget that holy conviction comes from God and is designed to lead us into repentance and forgiveness, the touch of His love” This is so true and so important to remember. Your sweet poems are a lovely way to keep these truths forefront in our minds! I pray that you will remember them when the enemy begins to whisper. Blessings to you, my friend.
Dear June, we could all use a reminder of this vital truth from time to time. It’s been on my mind for a while, especially while we walk this Lenten pathway, ponder our Lord’s sacrifice and all it entails for us. Condemnation comes all too easily to me, prone as I am to drift into guilt and self-condemnation. But God is always close by, whispering softly of His mercy, grace and forgiveness, and how the thoughts Holy Spirit lays on our hearts are intended to draw us closer to Him, rather than make us turn away in self-disgust. May you have a blessed, restful weekend, sweet friend! xo ❤
Such a great reminder! I love that last poem. It’s my favorite!
Thanks, Tara! I’m not meant to play favourites with my own poetry but I do like how the last haiku draws us deeper into God’s restful peace instead of self-recrimination. Bless you, sweet friend. 🙂 xo