Reflections

storm: what to do while looking for a break in the clouds

/ Joy Lenton / 18 Comments

 

I’m a curled comma, crouched under the duvet, waiting for the storm to pass. Hoping it will be short-lived—relentless, sharp and heavy as it is. This is no ordinary storm, though it’s physical enough.

It’s a dark cloud covering raining down weariness, weakness, profound fatigue, swirling brain fog and constant pain. Bolts of lightning shoot through muscle and bone like fiery darts, making me horribly aware of my fragile frame and frail humanity, and how it hurts so easily.

Maybe you’ve got some storm clouds hovering over you? They could be physical, financial, emotional or relational. Perhaps you, too, are waiting for the weather of your circumstances to improve and longing for those dark clouds to give way to sunshine again.

It is said that every cloud has a silver lining, and that we can learn to dance in the rain. Optimism is a wonderful thing, but there are days and seasons when we lack the wherewithal to stay positive. What then?

We can take comfort from having a God who walks on water, as Master and Lord of any storm we may encounter. He invites us to come, look up and keep our eyes on Him, listen to His voice above the surging din, ignore waves rising and our fear of drowning, and confidently reach out for His hand instead.

Healing air of Home

When dark nights haunt a good morning

let’s dance slow to life’s hot fire and

picture a young, green universe, like velvet

breath-kiss, embracing peace with angel breeze

See how healing air of Home bleeds open

like sacred ocean smile—and here we fly

©joylenton2017

 

Sometimes the storms are literal. Many a dramatic summer drenching from years ago springs to mind, where we had to urgently gather our belongings and hurry off  the beach, as thunder and lightning crashed above our heads and some brave souls stayed in the sea! Though thirsty land and plants welcome each refreshing drop from heaven.

Lively water music

Summer beauty is so black-dress gorgeous

as purple petal rain storm rips through

garden’s elaborate gown like mad language

and lies languid as drooling death—beating

time with lively water music—as sun’s hot

tongue still sits and sings over our skin

©joylenton2017

 

Life’s sudden squalls and storms begin to dissipate as we yield to God’s free-flowing river of grace, His vast ocean of love and continual rivulets of peace. In the surrender of resting prayer we are given means to cope and rise above it all.

And in the remembrance of God’s goodness toward us, we have resources for  the stormy days ahead, while we look for a break in the clouds today.

spring issues us with a reminder to come alive on the inside

/ Joy Lenton / 14 Comments

 

Springtime makes our souls come alive on the inside, unfurling like flowers to sun’s warmth. It helps to fuel the creative, poetic flame and encourages us to look for the light at the edges of everything.

We’re more willing to believe in resurrection when we witness it in earth’s cycles, in new life springing up before us. Somehow, such visible signs help to point us in a more positive direction, nudge us out of our former complacency and ready us for change.

These weeks of walking toward Easter can feel long, lifeless, depleted and dark, if we focus most on our loss, the giving up and denial inherent in this season, and as  we anticipate Christ’s needful work on the cross.

We can tend to forget to rejoice in the small signs of wonder unfolding before us, those seemingly tiny glimpses of grace we experience each day. Yet they lead to the greatest rejoicing of all on Resurrection Sunday, and are intended to bring us joy in the here and now.

Inspiration can come from many quarters, including enjoying a world waking up from winter dormancy and God breathing new life into us each day. I am so thankful for words to write, friends to connect with, people to love and family to cherish. These things, alongside God’s continual love and care, help to restore hope and strengthen my heart. They have also shaped my poetic thoughts today… I pray they will speak to you as you read them.

Refreshes like dew

God’s mercy springs whole

watering our souls, like dew

refreshes, makes new

©joylenton2017

 

Light as lambs

Hope is springing—light

as lambs dance on grass—making

the day feel fresh, bright

©joylenton2017

 

An eternal spring

An eternal spring

rises afresh in our hearts

as God imparts love

©joylenton2017

 

Joining in at the eleventh hour with Poet Master Ronovan’s weekly haiku challenge. Just click here to join me there and read the great posts being shared on the theme of ‘Spring&Fresh’.

alive: awakening to signs of resurrection hope

/ Joy Lenton / 21 Comments

 

Spring issues us with an invitation to come alive. Winter’s hibernation slumber is over. it’s time to embrace the new and the next. But are we ready? It’s all too easy to become lethargic.

Though our mind and body may protest, feeling like we’re being tugged into a season we’re ill-prepared for, we all need a holy prod sometimes to remind us how to come alive to God, especially while we walk this Lenten pathway.

Resurrection life awaits us with the dawn of each new day. Every moment is an opportunity to engage with the holy. Every hour can speak out wonder for souls alive enough on the inside to be alert to God’s continual presence with us.

I have been thinking along these lines for my magnetic poetry offerings today, because I long for sufficient sensitivity to sense earth stirring, sap rising and God’s new life being reborn in me as I look to Him to provide for all my needs, and as I seek the eternal sunshine wonder of His glorious face each day.

Alive like wild rain

Follow ancient path’s water cycle

Stroll soft and long; climb quietly

and breathe pure, soul-sweet spring

air above daffodil-deep sanctuary

Rest and feel alive like wild rain

blanketing grass with its wet shade

©joylenton

 

Slow cloud joy

Here they devour slow cloud joy in

eternity’s liquid night-drink sky, and

wake—laughing soft—with the morning

like velvet prisoner’s in poetry’s home

as God gives His sacred time picture

of life’s warm and wild secret colours

©joylenton

 

Maybe we can learn to love our everyday, ordinary lives, and come alive to possibility and potential in the midst of pain and problems. Just as we marvel over spring flowers emerging from dusty, barren ground, we can watch those things we felt were dying or dead suddenly regain new shoots of life before our very eyes.

Eyes of faith see beyond the temporary and ache to experience the eternal in the temporal, the profound in the prosaic. Those with resurrection Hope etched into their souls learn to be aware and willing to receive the next thing God has planned for them.

We can have hope because God’s resurrection life pulses through our veins, rendering the ordinary mundane a work of extraordinary art and grace. Will you join me in deliberately looking for signs of resurrection life within and without and focusing on what is most alive in us in this season?

ancient: God’s ever-new and ancient ways threading through our days

/ Joy Lenton / 14 Comments

 

We live, survive and thrive within love’s grasp—the tender canopy holding us gently all our days—and rest in God’s safe, secure  arms. Love is the precursor of our existence, planned since the beginning of time, as Holy Love smiled on our arrival, our life finally unfolding before His very eyes.

God offers us an ancient love walk: a swift slide through seasons and sensations, a slow stroll of learning His ways in the fires of adversity and realms of experience, and a walk of stumbling faith over dusty, wilderness pathways and rocky terrain.

We become birthed into the new of our life’s beginning. We are offered a new birth in Christ as a fresh beginning, a clean slate start for our messed up lives and broken hearts. Because the ancient patterning from Eden still lingers in our DNA.

We are meant for more than this life can offer or convey. Though sin rules and reigns in hearts far from God, His desire is for all of us to return to our pre-Fall state by His goodness and grace, His mercy and forgiveness in Christ. And to get to know His wonderful love, its wise, ever-new and ancient ways threading through our earthly days.

On this, the first day of spring, my magnetic poetry thoughts have taken a walk into the heady days of summer and stretched into our life’s dependence on God…

Ancient love walk

A bee’s intuition is to stroll

insect-gentle and soft over blossom,

like an ancient nature love walk

above beautiful summer flowers; and

behold full, deep, moist spring beneath,

thriving like life’s thick, green river

vine wanders wildly in my soul

©joylenton2017

 

We once walked with God as naturally as we might accompany a good friend—relaxed, happy and chatting easily together. Now we dream hopefully, long to recapture better days, and have a deep soul yearning for our Edenic state, where we lived and walked freely, bathed in Love’s continual light.

Our urge to dream

When we recall our urge to dream,

live in love’s light and elaborate

on life’s bare beauty, let’s sit

together here and whisper of

summer swims and cool sea spray,

beating sweet as music mist

on skin, shining fast like a

thousand tiny water tongues

©joylenton2017

sometimes: making space for grace and compassion in action

/ Joy Lenton / 18 Comments

 

Sometimes we forget to be grateful, fail to recognise how very blessed we are to sleep in a bed with a roof over our head, a table laden with food, cupboards bulging at the seams and a freezer stuffed full of extra provisions as well.

Sometimes we forget to thank God for daily graces, to see how wonderfully He provides for all our needs and how blessed we truly are in every conceivable way, even to simply wake up and breathe each day.

Sometimes news headlines and the constant media bombardment on our screens wash over us with lethargic indifference, fail to capture our attention or engender a compassionate response within—so inured can we become to a world’s distress, poverty and duress.

Then sometimes we STOP. Stop and put ourselves within another’s shoes, think about the people behind the news events, pause to ponder their predicament, examine their lives via our imagination and wonder what we can do to help them.

If we do, we might just see how much our Saviour loves and aches for them, become caught up with His heart in prayer, in care and compassion, in being living examples of His love and grace in action, and maybe in writing a poem about their plight…

What do we know?

Lord,

What do we know of empty, distended bellies

bereft of sustenance, where choice is an unheard

of word and survival is the name of the game; where life

itself hangs by a slender thread and starvation

haunts each waking moment like a skeletal spectre

rattling its chains and calling your name?

 

What do we know of owning just one set of clothes to drape

across our diminishing frame; one pot in which to cook

a few dry grains, if we’re one of the lucky ones with

something at hand to eat today, instead of foraging,

walking miles with weary tread to gather a handful

of flowers—mere weeds to water our thirsty bodies?

 

What do we know of watching our children shrinking

before our very eyes, becoming wasted, emaciated, aged

way before their time, lying still with barely enough energy

to play or cry, their voices weak and eyes now clouded,

sad, pleading, bleak—breaking our own aching hearts

while we cradle them close, watching them suffer and die?

©joylenton2017

“Then these ‘sheep’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you taking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you? Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me'” ~ Matthew 25: 37-40 The Message

clear: seeking to trust God’s revelation of Himself to us

/ Joy Lenton / 16 Comments

 

Life and faith are not always clear to us or easily understood. Often, there are more questions than answers, more wondering about the meaning of life and less living in wonder.

Try as we might, we soon realise our finite minds cannot fully comprehend the divine. We feel like blindfolded walkers stumbling through a long, shadowed tunnel, anxiously trying to make out the way ahead. Where is the light and won’t someone remove our blindfold, please? 

What if we put uncertainty aside, allowed God’s word to speak to us in a clear way, to read us as we’re reading it? And if we tried to absorb its truth by soaking in the promises and believing them.

What would it look like to immerse ourselves fully in His story more than in speculation over how it all possibly came to be—to get to the heart of the matter by way of God’s beating heart for us?

Maybe we still wouldn’t have clear, concrete answers to the myriad questions in our minds, but it is possible we would be more easily satisfied to live into the answers to come, to let faith draw us deeper into wonder, rather than leave us wondering what to do with all the unsettled issues.

Because what matters most is relationship, getting to spend quality time in God’s presence, learning His will and ways in a natural, gradual way, relaxing our worries into His hands and learning to trust Him more than we focus on our cares and concerns.

My first poem below suggests God’s overseeing of things, even if they may look dark, blurry or seem invisible to us.

“even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you” ~ Psalm 138: 12 NIV

Clear as day

Night is clear as day

to our Creator-King, Lord

of all living things

©joylenton2017

 

And when we do begin to grasp how God is always revealing Himself to us in the everyday, can we actually turn aside from daily preoccupations and deliberately catch sight of His presence?

“Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb (Sinai), the mountain of God. The Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing flame of fire from the midst of a bush… yet it was not consumed. So Moses said, ‘I must turn away [from the flock] and see this great sight—why the bush is not burned up'” ~ Exodus 3:1-3 AMP

Can I turn aside?

Can I turn aside

like Moses—witness my King

burning daylight bright?

©joylenton2017

 

Finally, there will come a Day unlike any other. We will see God as He is, know and be known fully, comprehend what has been deep Mystery beforehand.

“The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”~ Acts 2:20-21

On that Day

On that Day the King

will be revealed in glory

everyone will kneel

©joylenton2017

 

These haiku have been written in response to the prompt of ‘King&Day’, this week’s haiku challenge from our Haiku Master, Ronovon.  If you’d like to read the rich variety of posts being shared and maybe join in, too,  just click here.  🙂

season: finding soul sanctuary in tough times

/ Joy Lenton / 14 Comments

crocus-season-pj

 

How did we get to March? I seem to have missed the memo. Just like some friends across the pond are still deep in snow, waiting for the melt, for a season of spring to show, I seem to have been hibernating in stillness, a needful slowing down on the inside while taking on extra physical and mental busyness.

I need a soul sanctuary. It’s here—borne on the wings of prayer, coming to me as I wait patiently before God, learn to still my restless heart and find my deepest peace in faith and trust, as I navigate through life’s hard places with His guidance and support,  His energy and strength given whenever it’s needed.

It’s a holy breath, a whispered answer to prayer, a divine call to come aside for a while and rest deeper in Him. Our soul sanctuary is available for any season of the soul or season of life. There is no place where we can fail to meet with God’s grace.

Fresh rain sanctuary

This pure night frost, blanketing winter

tendrils beneath soft moon peace, leaves

deep cloud, cold air we breathe; and a 

thick, moist, fresh rain sanctuary cycles

like wild, sacred water song, murmuring

long summer secrets of our Eden rest

©joylenton2017

magnetic-poetry-fresh-rain-sanctuary-pj

 

While I wait for my husband to be fit enough to leave hospital following his spinal surgery, the clock inches ever closer to a significant birthday for him. I don’t know how, when, where or if we’ll find an opportunity to fully celebrate it, but my hope and prayer is for us to have a season of togetherness, joy and celebration soon, instead of a season of separation, sickness and pain. Hence the poem below…

My wild desire

Coffee is my liquid magic

It’s good to wake and make time

here for remembering my wild desire:

to embrace, be healed, eat cake and 

celebrate this life with champagne kiss

©joylenton2017

magnetic-poetry-my-wild-desire-pj

 

When we take our needs and wild desires to God we can trust Him for the outcome and all He plans to do with them. Things might not look like we expect or hope they will, but it will be the best fit for you and me, because God knows the innermost secrets of our hearts and is able to bless us beyond measure in meeting those needs in a way that also serves His overall plan and purposes.

How is this season speaking to you? I’d love to hear in the comments below. 

*NOTE* ~ My poetic memoir, ‘Seeking Solace’ is free for a few days on Kindle, from March 7th to March 11th inclusive! If you’re seeking solace yourself, or know someone else who is, then my story of discovering God’s grace in life’s hard places may well aid the journey. You can get it here… There’s also a paperback version available if you prefer.  🙂

awakening: experiencing a fresh awakening to joy during Lent

/ Joy Lenton / 8 Comments

awakening-to-joy-during-lent-poetry-joy

 

I don’t know about you but I could use a fresh infusion of joy right now. Life has a way of grinding us down low to ground and leaching joy right out of our hearts. So how do we go about receiving a fresh awakening to joy in a season where we feel weak, weary or discouraged?

My faith points the Way to discovering all Hope and Joy in Jesus, because the best way to climb out of a pit of pain and despair is to recognise Christ’s constant presence with us, (yes, even, and especially, as we sit in dust and ashes, feeling low or lost) and His hand always reaching down to save us.

God never leaves us to our own devices. In fact, through Christ, He has paved the way to draw us joyfully back to His Father-heart, a way which this season of Lent makes clear and evident.

And we soon discover how the path to the cross is strewn with challenge and pain before the great release from the tomb and celebration of the resurrection Hope Christ gives us. In recognition of this, I’m praying for God to give you and me a fresh awakening to joy during our own times of sorrow and sadness, shame and pain.

My friend, I can’t pretend to know what you are going through, what keeps you awake at night or makes your heart quail, but I can offer a virtual hand to hold, a shoulder to lean on, a friend to confide in if you need one, and my prayers for you during this season of Lent.

May we learn to come alive again on the inside as we place our faith and trust in God. May we have a fresh awakening to His loving presence and begin to find joy creeping back into our hearts again. Each week during Lent I intend to offer a poetic response and a few words of hope and encouragement. I hope you will join me. Here’s the first offering about Ash Wednesday.

A fresh awakening

a-fresh-awakening-ash-wednesday-pj

 

We kneel with last Palm Sunday’s

burnt palms arising as ashes, smudged

on foreheads; and we receive a fresh

awakening to Life Himself in our own

dying to self

These days of denying and fasting and focusing

on death will become precursor to rising

in newness of life—like grains of fallen wheat

our souls become broken, crushed, before

being made whole

And hearts honed in humility will soon

see an uplifting as we draw closer 

to accepting our own mini-Calvary

We’ll witness our dross nailed firm

to Christ’s cross

This season unveils the very reason

for his Incarnation—makes manifest

the Man of Sorrows made flesh and

tears at our own hearts of stone, now

weeping like his

©joylenton2017

a-fresh-awakening-poem-excerpt-poetry-joy

shadow: caught in the shadow between life and death

/ Joy Lenton / 16 Comments

caught-between-the-shadow-of-life-and-death-pj

 

There’s nothing quite like being in a hospital ward to remind us we are caught in the shadow between life and death, hope and despair, as subject as the seasons to alteration and change, with death, disease and decay sitting in our mortal frames.

If we stop and think about it, then we realise how each day, each breath is but a gift. And even if every moment we live slides us closer to the grave, and a dark shadow of sin already exists as a blight over our lives, we are brought alive to the Light in a whole new way by God’s great mercy and grace.

Our part is to live with a mindful awareness, a grateful acceptance, a heart willing to surrender to whatever each new day will bring, a mind able to make room for Mystery within the mundane and a spirit ready to engage with our Creator-God.

Because if we can sit comfortably within this shadow land and make peace with our circumstances, we can begin to learn what God is teaching us right here, right now. Life lessons form the warp and weft of each happening—every thing is speaking to us, if only we make time to heed it and have receptive ears to listen well.

“Yes, though I walk through the [deep, sunless] valley of the shadow of death, I will fear or dread no evil, for You are with me; your rod [to protect] and your staff [to guide] , they comfort me” ~ Psalm 23:4 (Amplified Bible Classic Edition)

Life’s forest shadow

A cool lake mist spray whispers

blue dress of death, smooth as

loving rain on skin. And when

we trudge through life’s forest shadow

recalling dreams diamond like spring

wind plays sweetest rose symphony

singing like lazy sky sleep, but we

want time to shine our light beneath

©joylenton2017

magnetic-poetry-lifes-forest-shadow-pj

 

Life’s fire embrace

We cannot always live long

in this cool, fool universe

A vast open sky eternity

lies like a sacred time-kiss

warm and moist with God’s velvet

healing peace, and night is

broken by Life’s fire embrace

©joylenton2017

magnetic-poetry-lifes-fire-embrace-pj

 

I am so thankful God gives us opportunity to experience new life, and renewed hope, any time we choose to turn to Him. He knows the dark shadows we live under and makes provision for our every need, both here and in eternity.

“We are subjected to every kind of hardship, but never distressed; we see no way out but never despair; we are pursued but never cut off; knocked down, but still have some life in us; always we carry with us in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus, too, may be visible in our… mortal flesh” ~ 2 Corinthians 4:8-11 (New Jerusalem Bible)

How is life’s shadow side speaking to you?

What helps you to see and sense God’s Light shining through?

A simple mantra of “Jesus conquers…. Jesus saves” (gleaned from reading ‘God Calling – A Devotional Diary’) is currently giving me renewed courage when life’s dark shadow of discouragement hangs over my days. You might like to try it too.  🙂

worship: why silence might be one of the best ways to pray

/ Joy Lenton / 20 Comments

worship-softly-resting-under-loves-soft-shade-pj

 

Do words fail you sometimes? Maybe get stuck on the tongue, swallowed back like tears? We think language should be simple, just one person conversing with another, as easy as breathing, fluid as air.

But there are moments when we don’t know quite what to say to one another, never mind speak to God. Prayer can stall into silence. This may seem like we’re not praying at all, but I think silence is actually one of the deepest mediums for prayer and a great way to align ourselves with the divine.

During times when our words are stilled, we find other ways to communicate with God. Tears and inaudible, deep-seated groans of the soul still rise as incense before Him. Silence makes space for restful, worshipful contemplation.

There is no language, no tongue, no hindrance to communication with God. Our very posture speaks volumes to Him, as does our inner ache, sadness and pain.

What about worship? Doesn’t that require words?  Ideally, we want to express our heartfelt feelings before our Lord in a vocal way, though worship is myriad things and more of a lifestyle decision than a song.

God sees our hearts and hears their silent cries—our intentions and desires are laid bare before Him before we breathe a word or sing a note.

If, like me, the season you are going through has made voiced prayer hard to do, words failing to form due to the lump in your throat or heaviness of heart, please know that God understands it all, sees into the depths of your soul and is busily answering before you feel able to utter a single word.

Worship

Let our language spring as sweetly

languid as summer sky, lazy on

the tongue, and soaring like sea spray

We’re wanting an upbeat life and 

to swim together, like sunlight still

aches to shine with worship, whispering

music like a smooth honey symphony

©joylenton2017

magnetic-poetry-worship-pj

 

You and I can rest in Love’s soft shade, rest our weary souls before God and know we are being loved, seen and heard. In the shelter of His safe, protective love we grow strong again.

“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in him I will trust’…. He will cover you with his feathers and under his wings you shall take refuge” ~ Psalm 91: 1-2,4

Love’s soft shade

Our lonely spirits can thrive

and shine by Love’s soft shade

For every life has dark garden

vines from earth’s root fall, but

warm, gentle Eden rain cycles

like sacred river song beneath

light, wandering wind harmony

of deep fresh air we breathe

©joylenton2017

magnetic-poetry-loves-soft-shade-pj

 

We can communicate with God through silent tears and a broken heart. Maybe, like Ann Lamott, the only prayers you feel capable of right now are of the “Help, Thanks, Wow” kind, and that’s okay. He understands. Start where you are and a flow of words will eventually come.