love

Mosaic of a marriage

/ Joy Lenton / 6 Comments

mosaic image for PJ mosaic of a marriage

 

Nobody can fully appreciate or understand the dynamics, anatomy and intricacies of a marriage, apart from the couple intimately involved in it.

And even then, much remains a holy mystery.

We are husband and wife, friends and lovers joined together in union and communion with God and one another.

Two become one in mind, body, soul and spirit in a divine alchemy of grace.

My marriage is heavily grace-dependent.

My background, experiences and personal problems have gradually made me someone other than the relatively carefree young woman I used to be.

As I’ve tried to work through a legacy of dysfunctional family life, childhood abuse, guilt and shame, (and the mental health breakdown they gave me) the one linked inextricably with me has also lived through it all.

Now, after more than 20 years of having M.E and chronic illness, my ability to be the wife he needs and wants is hampered further still.

Though we have struggled a great deal (and continue to do so), some things shine out bright and clear as I look back over the years:

Love will always find a way where there seems to be no way.

Faith can endure all things if it’s faith rooted in God and His sustaining power.

Hope may wither but it rarely dies.

Joy comes in unexpected places and circumstances.

Grace is a prerequisite for a godly life and marriage.

God gives us all we’ll ever need ~ even if we rarely have all we want.

In musing on these things over the last few days it is no great surprise that my mind turned to this territory to write about today.

And as I do so, I rejoice over the masterpiece God is creating out of the messy mosaic of my life and marriage.

‘Mosaic of a marriage’

Nothing in our courtship could have prepared

our youthful, hopeful, joy-filled hearts

for the prolonged grief and pain we’ve shared

or the need for so many fresh starts

Nothing in my mind could have foreseen

how very hard and challenging

living with me would have been

more your worst nightmare than dream

For we have been tried and tested

as gold goes through the fire

refined, processed and sifted

retaining heat, passion and desire

Nothing I can say will make up

for numerous ways I’ve let you down

You’ve had a bitter pill to swallow

gaining a face wreathed with frowns

But we, who are nothing without

the sustaining power of God

have finally made Something

of this life and path we’ve trod

Given grace from the One

who pours out His love every day

Given faith to persevere

when nothing’s gone our way

So I love you imperfectly

just as I am

and you’ve accepted my offering

a meagre nothing to the feelings

found within my man

Thank God for new beginnings

Praise Him for being true

Give Him the glory for making

faithful, if faltering, lovers

out of me and you

©JoyLenton2014

Joining with Lisa-Jo for #fiveminutefriday (yes, I ran over time!) ~ this week’s prompt is:‘Nothing’. You are very welcome and warmly invited to join in. Linking also with Mel and Laura

You can read more about how the issues above have affected my marriage in this post from Words of Joy.

I share openly in the hope of encouraging others to know they can live with and rise above their circumstances by the grace of God.

mosaic of a marriage file image on PJ pin

The road less travelled

/ Joy Lenton / 6 Comments

We tread a familiar pathway in this season of hope and renewal.

Walk through the Easter story with a weight of wonder.

Marvel anew at all our Lord went through as He trod the sand-blown, palm-strewn, hosanna-resounding, hostility-riven, nail-driven path to Calvary.

Our dark valleys and nights of the soul pale into insignificance beside Christ’s ordeal at Gethsemane.

Begging for the cup of suffering and sorrow to pass Him by.

Heart and soul in dread.

Sweating ruby-red from furrowed forehead.

Agonised at the thought of torment to come.

Never more fully human and fully God than in these heart-wrenching, lonely, decisive moments in history.

Friends slept oblivious as He waged war internally for our souls’ sake.

Faced being pinioned to a cross. Ready to accept all sin and loss.

Held captive so we could walk free in glorious grace-filled liberty.

Beating a path toward freedom as nails bite into torn, flailed flesh.

Thorns pierce deep and pain sears all senses.

crown of thorns file image

 

Here lies Love ~  unconditional and immeasurable ~ greater than anything we will ever know.

He took the road less travelled and takes us with Him too.

Ponder His Passion.

Poured out wine of His royal blood Divine.

Pursue the pathway.

Be taken to the cross.

Meet with glory.

Live to tell this eternal story.

cross image ~ You take me tanka poem pin

It began in a garden

/ Joy Lenton / Leave a comment

It began in a garden.

With a serpent’s hissed seed sown.

Temptation lurked near.

Belief and trust wavered.

Disobedience followed with a seeing, desiring, reaching out, touching and tasting.

Sin entered in with accompanying guilt and shame.

Naked awareness.

Desires laid bare.

Souls adrift on an ocean of uncertainty.

Estranged. Lives rearranged. Everything changed.

Banished and burdened. Empty and lost.

Needing hope and healing. Saving at any cost.

Relationship broken by the Fall. Father God gave His all..

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” ~ John 3:16-17

apple ~ fall haiku image pindark ~ sin haiku image pin

crucifixion ~ grace haiku image pin

Love is speaking

/ Joy Lenton / 12 Comments

Love speaks to us in myriad ways. Way beyond Valentine cards, roses and chocolates ~ welcome as they are.

There is heartache and elation, pain and promise, sadness and joy wrapped up in human love, circumscribed as it is by our woundedness.

We can be broken and made new by love.  God’s love heals, renews, restores and makes us whole.

The Word made flesh  revealed in Jesus offers us the gift of mercy, grace and forgiveness from His poured out blood-bought sacrifice.

We are eternally, unconditionally and wonderfully loved beyond anything we can know or imagine.

All creation continually signals the love of the Creator.

It is never silent because God is constantly pouring out His love to us.

He longs for us to know Him and discover we are deeply loved by Him. It’s the greatest love story ever told.

‘Love speaks’

Love speaks

As

an aching formless void, seeming nothingness

into which pours poetry, music, melody and noise

In

the echoes of a dream, vibrancy we glean

in everything we encounter, visible and unseen

So

we tune our hearts to hear soft whispers

on the wind tickling our attentive ears

With

longing breaking forth in our souls,

a sense of awe, wonder, becoming and belonging

 Begin

to make us feel complete, fulfilled, whole,

so we strain to draw close, come near

 To

the Source of all we could or would be

growing familiar as He starts to appear

 And

lingers to impart His light and grace from above

into thankful hearts made ready for His love

©JoyLenton2014

The video below is a love letter from the Father’s heart to our own.

It speaks volumes about how each and every one of us is deeply loved and special to God.

May it bless and encourage your heart as you watch it.

Linking here with Jennifer,  Lyli, Mel and Laura

Fuel to light a fire

/ Joy Lenton / 16 Comments

In these dark days of Winter we need all the help we can get to stay hopeful and encouraged.

Some seasons of the soul have their own gloomy aspect.

Fog swims in to cloud our vision.

Hope gets lost. Despair can set in. Depression is at its heels.

How can we encourage ourselves? Here are a few ideas:

Stay focussed on the positive. There is always a glimmer of light somewhere.

Keep a daily gratitude journal.

Nurture yourself inwardly and outwardly.

Feed on God’s word.

Seek the balm of friendship and support from loved ones.

Finding ways to help and encourage others will restore joy to our own souls too.

Some more thoughts on encouragement for #fiveminutefriday where we pour out words as God gives grace:

START…

‘Encouragement’

Encouragement is the fuel which lights a fire

of hope to all our dreams and desires.

Life can seem worth living again

under the sprinkle of its refreshing rain.

A word in due season can impart

a soothing balm to a broken heart,

Holy oil to bathe wounds and hurts

as it pours into everywhere we insert.

Life-giving, enhancing, gift and grace

to anoint and energise us for our race.

Whether by caring word or deed

we sow love and kindness seed.

And it gives and gives and gives some more

returning to us when we’re wretched and poor,

lighting a spark when energy is low

providing far more than we’ll ever know.

So God encourages us all to strive

to pour this gift into another’s life ~ 

A listening ear, understanding, a hand to hold,

words and actions together make it twofold;

let it be given as we also enjoy receiving

the reassurance it offers to keep on believing.

©JoyLenton2014

STOP.

Joining here with Lisa-Jo, Mel and Laura and other brave and bold creatives as we share what God lays on our heart .

And for further encouragement ~ because don’t we just need it? ~ here’s a link to my writer friend James Prescott’s site where he specialises in the subject and has some great free resources to offer you too. Just click on his name to be taken there.

Treasure mined in darkness

/ Joy Lenton / 4 Comments

Christmas may be over for another year; food supplies begin to deplete along with our flagging energy and enthusiasm.

Yet hope, love and grace are evergreen ~ lingering eternally in our hearts even through the darkest days.

We may clear away the debris of celebrations but we hang on to memories we have made.

Think of Love come down to earth and how that impacts the everyday with awe and wonder.

Admire our gifts and consider the greatest Gift ever given to us ~ our Lord Jesus Christ.

And we may ponder the worth and value of the gifts we have been given by God over the last year and beyond.

For a gift may come wrapped in sadness and sorrow, problems and pain, suffering and shame.

It can take some searching to see the light shining through the darkness.

Appreciate grace glimmers in hard places.

Such a gift came to me and it took me many years to receive, unwrap and appreciate its worth.

‘Hidden Depths’

It can be really hard

to understand

how weakness and fragility

that render lives

dependent, still and slow

may be gifts

from God’s right hand

that He, in infinite mystery

has chosen to bestow

And yet there lingers

surprising nuggets of His grace

glinting bright in dark

circumstance and place

we deem rightly painful, sad;

though from His loving fingers

we can trace joy and hope

rising through all that seems

heavy weighted-down and bad

For those who cling

desperate closer toThe Vine

can find strength beyond measure

as they seek to bring

their lives as daily offering

found in their struggle,

pain and suffering, it can

yield unexpected treasure

of hidden depths to mine

©JoyLenton2013

“I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.” ~ Isaiah 45:3

This poem links with the theme of the blog post ‘When a gift doesn’t look like one’ that I wrote as a guest post on my writer friend James Prescott’s site. You can click here to read it.

Flight into freedom

/ Joy Lenton / 8 Comments

When pain presses in hard we find ourselves longing for freedom.

Chained to ground.

Desperate to escape the shackles.

Looking for a way to live lightly and freely.

Get beyond the everyday struggles.

Seeking goodness. Seeking grace. Seeking God’s face.

Longing for our eternal home.

‘Flying free’

I want to fly free

from all that keeps me

in captivity,

all that imprisons a frail body

held fast and earthbound.

To move with the flow and embrace

Holy Spirit’s current of grace.

Soar above the ground

above all circumstance and place,

all sound and sight

of fallen humanity

into a space

where You dwell

and all is Light.

Become as bird, eagle borne

given strength to flee

and rise above this earthly frame

tied down, weighted fast

with sickness, sin and shame.

Fly into Love’s fragrant air

breathe deep and easy,

no pain or suffering anywhere.

With mind, body, spirit as one

stretch out to reach glorious Son,

feel heat of His radiant rays

filling all moments, hours and days.

Dance to the beat of His song

of freedom beckoning now

whispering softly

 urging me on.

One day I will truly fly

arise and drift beyond

these mortal skies

at last.

©JoyLenton2013

“But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint” ~ Isaiah 40:31

Linking here with Lisa-Jo Baker for Five Minute Friday. This week’s prompt is:‘Fly’  You are warmly invited and welcome to join in.

Love and loss

/ Joy Lenton / 4 Comments

Since time immemorial, poets have written about love and loss.

Such topics are natural outpourings of the soul.

My words are not always drawn from experience.

Sometimes a hint exists.

And more than a large share of poetic imagination.

I’ll leave you to guess which.

The poem here was written a few years back in the heady days of love given and received, coupled with those painful times of love denied or lost, and published here for the first time.

‘Outlived love’

Distillation

of quiet, unbroken tears

wells up between us.

What can I say?

Channels block

Stop

and locks are drawn

though finely

as a thin veil covering

the Past and refusing

re-entry to the future.

Something

slowly dies

creeping with cowardice

from our hearts ~

a love we once trusted

but lost.

©JoyLenton2013

Human love can take us to dizzy heights or plummeting depths of emotion.

It is a wonderful yet fragile thing, prone to alteration and change, often as fickle as our feelings.

The only love that is totally unconditional, constant, continual, dependable, eternal, forgiving and ever-giving is the love of God as seen in Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour.

In it’s pure, Holy flame we can rest secure. Feel safe. Be comforted, warmed and encouraged. Breathe easy. Feel completely accepted and validated.

“We love because he first loved us” ~ 1 John 4:19

Day 25 ~ 31 days of #poetryforthesoul

Grace notes

/ Joy Lenton / 12 Comments

How do you picture grace or try to describe it?

I see grace like musical notes that play out in our lives as rich background sound to all our senses, bringing harmony and melody to our moments and a song of praise to our lips and hearts.

These grace notes are Holy whispers we need to train ourselves to listen and respond to.

We live, breathe and have our being in God’s grace.

We are enabled, equipped and encouraged by its anointing.

We have all the riches of God’s treasure store laid out for us by faith in Christ.

Where does one begin to suggest the source of all strength, the power, peace and purpose of knowing our Saviour?

As a weary M.E sufferer (who has very limited energy or inspiration today), I know I cannot do full justice to these things.

But I pray that my lowly offering here will still touch your heart with some small measure of mutuality, a flicker of recognition or understanding.

START…

‘Holy whispers’

Dew-dappled leaves

sunlight fronds filtering through the trees

with holy whispers calling on the breeze

suggestive of love, hope and laughter

kindled with knowledge of joy hereafter.

With friends to hold hands and heart

for whether we’re young or old

they are a rich part  of common grace

goodness God gives and deploys

to be acknowledged and enjoyed.

And as we trust in the promise of Your word

 believe and receive all we have heard,

as we behold Your face

seeing life through new eyes

with renewed and restored view

of delight and surprise in dealing

with the everyday, we become aware

of how it all comes back to You.

Everything looks better than we had thought

it could be as we have sought

to know and follow closely

being alert in seeing each and every day

is liberally laced

with Your love

 revealing a fresh way of living

with help from within

and support from above.

For such is life when

You bring our senses alive.

All is gift

All is grace

All is Christ seen

within and around.

His love surrounds

Everything

enabling the freeing

of all

that soils and despoils

©JoyLenton2013

STOP.

Like many before it, this poem had a life of its own.

I began with marvelling at creation.

And veered off into marvelling at the Creator Himself.

Which is no surprise when He is the Source of all grace, all goodness and life itself.

Linking here with Lisa-Jo Baker and all the brave and beautiful writers who participate in #fiveminutefriday. Today’s prompt is:‘Grace’.

You are very welcome and warmly invited to join in.

PS:Grace is a topic I’ve written about many times before in Words of Joy and made into a series called ‘Grace Notes’. It all began here.

Veiling and revealing

/ Joy Lenton / 16 Comments

Autumn is a season where we begin to experience a shift-change in our natural environment. Leaves take on a brilliant kaleidoscope hue; they glow as invitingly as the open fires we long to huddle over. Its colours warm our eyes and hearts. Its mists breathe out mystery. Its transience lends itself to reflection. For it’s a portent of death and dying with leaves falling and flowers losing their bloom. It lends itself well to poetic ponderings. The poem below arose at such a time.

Veiled

Sweeping across the veils of loneliness and despair

beautiful in its death

Autumn mists cling hopefully to me

a season’s sea-changing tidal broom

But do I rather cling to them

sensing reflections of death ~ my death

as I cling to you with crying need

unheeding the shattered veils

of our past

and the  reborn curtains

cutting across our future

We may rejoice in the untold beauty

that exists

now within a leaf

now within us two

as Autumn eclipses our moods

but decay stands

hoveringly with splendour

a quiet presence but always there

I stand as one amazed

and yet aware

watching this poem falling

into my mind and tumbling

rudely into yours

with no more grace than I possess

Receive it into your heart

for it was written for the deep corners

and already lay

embedded there before

it was begun

©JoyLenton2013

In plant life, dying is a precursor to new life springing forth in time to come. In human life, we can learn to die to selfishness and self-preoccupation as we allow God’s gift of new life in Christ to take root. If we hold on to a life of personal gain and are not prepared to embrace change, then we risk becoming destroyed on the inside – even as we give every appearance of being alive. Embracing the life offered us in Christ means hope, growth, change and potential for today and all the days yet to come.