eternal

alive: the potential fullness of life imagined

/ Joy Lenton / 14 Comments

alive - the potential fullness of life imagined @poetryjoy.com

In a season of increasing darkness within and without, as SAD and diminishing daylight hours adversely affect my feelings and thoughts, I tend to question what being fully alive might really mean. Because it seems to be defined for me spiritually far more than physically.

The answer to what it means to be fully alive will vary enormously from person to person, of course, but for me a wave of wistfulness sets in. I know I only feel half alive at times. Especially if liveliness means having an active body as well as an active mind!

Most of my life is relatively experience poor in terms of travelling, meeting up with people, seeing and trying new things. However, my inner life has become richer over the years, due to the sedentary nature of my existence making me more aware of life’s small mercies and graces.

In the poem below I am looking at life from a more whimsical perspective, instead of dwelling on my living reality of excessive fatigue, limited mobility, persistent pain and chronic illness. I am imagining a life where anything is possible and joy is expressed in a physically exuberant way, quite unlike my usual experience.

It suggests a foretaste of heaven, where tears, sickness, problems and pain will be no more, and we will experience a fullness of life and a deep joy beyond anything we might know now as we live in a fallen world.

“He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. There will be no more death, no more grief or crying or pain. The old things have disappeared.” – Revelation 21:4 GNT

 Being alive

I want to play
dance in the firmament
bend and sway
like a loose-limbed cloud
chased by a breath of wind

I want to rise
glide over rooftops and trees
a lunar ride
shining like quicksilver
growing lighter by degrees

I want to gambol
frisky as lambs in springtime
giddy with joy
inebriated inside
I’m poem, rhythm and rhyme

I want to hold
more than arms can contain
be brave and bold
expansive as wild waves
and never feel ashamed

I want to live
with stars in my eyes all day
drunk on love
happier than I’ve ever been
pulsating eternally
© joylenton

One thing we can count on is having God with us in our daily lives, in the mess and brokenness, in the fire of adversity and pain. God gives us His strength and helps us rise again. We are made alive in Him.

alive - being alive poem excerpt (C)joylenton @poetryjoy.com

despite the odds faith lasts #thedailyhaiku 9

/ Joy Lenton / 10 Comments

 

Faith is intrinsic to our lives. It’s exercised every day. We cannot even drive a car without trusting our skill and the vehicle we are in, or sit down in a chair without having faith it will support our weight.

Some say they have no faith, yet the art of science is faith-based, leaving room for human fallibility, questioning and supposition before any degree of certainties are reached.

So much of our lives are full of conjecture, questioning and making space for mystery. Christian believers sometimes doubt their faith is strong enough to take the weight of their expectations, hopes and dreams.

But what if we saw faith as a gift of grace? We’re meant to have more faith and trust in God than in our own ability to have faith in our somewhat wobbly faith as such. It’s God’s promises that are secure, His love remains unfailing, His mercy is without end and His word revered as our trustworthy authority, guidebook and training manual.

Despite our own worst fears, our tiny mustard seed-sized faith actually grows in adversity, is stretched during challenges and is made manifest when we are called to account. It is more apparent than we believe and it lasts eternally. So let’s keeping trusting and living into the answers to come.

faith lasts

it’s no fairytale
despite the odds we will find
our faith grows and lasts
©joylenton

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.  🙂