poetry

Reflections of grace

/ Joy Lenton / 8 Comments

sunset reflection

Even as we live out our unexceptional, hum-drum, wondrous lives we are reflections of God’s grace, mirrors of His glory.

It’s an awesome calling for every blood-bought son and daughter.

And an amazing privilege.

Most of the time we’re oblivious to the impact we have on others, unaware of  how much God may be using us to be light and salt in a needy world.

Perhaps that’s just as well.

Pride lurks close to our hearts and would have a field day if it saw the quiet, unseen influence we are having.

But the wonder of it all is how our dim light still reflects God’s glory, seen best in our faulty and flawed brokenness, our wounded lives.

He pours out of whatever crack or crevice we provide.

The more we feel unworthy, the more we are prospective channels of grace.

A willing, receptive heart is all He asks for.

A surrendered spirit.

A set apart soul.

And in all the 40 years I’ve been married to my beloved, I have seen him mirror God’s love to me time without number.

Because he loves as openly and unconditionally as any man can.

He always believes for the best, hopes for better, forgives me over and over again.

Sees portent of promise and potential in me long before it creeps into my consciousness or actions.

He makes allowances for all I am and breathing space for all I’m still becoming.

I still struggle to see myself as he sees me, rather as I so often fail to see myself as I fully am In Christ.

But I’m learning – to accept his love, believe in his (somewhat biased) perspective and relax into its promise.

The poem below appears in the anniversary card I’ll be giving to him this Sunday morning.

Reflections

In your eyes I see

reflections of all

I truly long to be

A woman of wisdom

A thing of joy and beauty

A person of great worth

And in our marriage unity

we reflect the complexity

of the 3 strand cord

A blessed trinity

A depth of love

A mirroring of God

Earth stands in awe

of holy intimacy

©JoyLenton2015

reflections poem pin PJ

Youth blooms eternal

/ Joy Lenton / 8 Comments

listening PJ file image

Music speaks into the air.

We sway soft, holding one another close, watching years roll away.

Laughter erupts and we collapse onto the sofa.

I sit on his knee and we kiss.

I see a gleam in the eyes of this man I’ve known and loved since forever.

Youth blooms eternal in a heart that loves. Age is no barrier.

We warm ourselves by its fire, persuade its embers into life again, coax the coals.

Others pay attention, attracted like moth to flame, desiring the heat of it.

Although our human love is but a poor, pale shadow of God’s love, it glows with hint and suggestion of His radiance.

Hearts hungry for love sense a longing echoing in their own souls.

And as my beloved and I come closer toward a significant wedding anniversary, we do so with humble gratitude, awe and wonder.

Because this love we’ve been given, shared soul deep, fought hard to retain over years of fears and tears, has survived against the odds and never lost its fire and fervour.

So I make no apology for posting about love this month as I reflect on the gift we’ve been given and the years shared.

Here’s the first small offering… a potential poem for my forthcoming anthology?.. You can decide.

Watching Muse
We’re watching Muse on the TV
our voices joining in
with the melody
in our own idiosyncratic
cracked and rusty way
And it doesn’t matter that
I’m applying your Parkinson patch
as we dance clumsily as one
or that I sway uneasily
on these weak, arthritic knees
What matters is the unleashed
joy as giggles erupt free
and we clutch one another
in imperfect harmony
with a youthful abandon
and familiar, ancient ease
©JoyLenton2015

couple dancing

Aim at heaven

/ Joy Lenton / 2 Comments

Aim at heaven - CS Lewis pin

Reality and truth are hard to define. We all live with shifting perspectives, objectives and definitions.

Circumstances cloud our judgement. Pain makes us doubt what we thought we knew before.

Life constantly remoulds our thinking, stretches our boundaries.

We sense we are born for more than earthly striving. Our gaze begins to rise heavenwards.

Where can we turn for wisdom? Who will guide us into Truth?

What if we really believed what the Bible says, about how Truth is a person and not an idea?

Jesus came that we might have life in abundance as we place our faith and trust in Him.

He alone can fully answer the questioning soul’s concerns because He brings truth and reality as seen from God’s perspective.

Here, we see in part, understand but a little, comprehend only a fraction of what is taught and revealed, given and received.

We aim at heaven and get earth thrown in, but we still live with mystery into eternity.

So we grow in faith, life and maturity and learn to live into the answers to come.

And we finally become satisfied in the not knowing of all our heart desires to understand.

Because this we do know… we are deeply, unconditionally loved, here for a purpose beyond the present, brought into relationship with God, and able to trust Him in the silence and the dark as well as in the light.

‘Reality’

The greatest reality is seen in divinity

The essence of all that is and exists

Expressions in every place

providing glimpses of grace

A revealing and concealing combined

An unfurling in hearts over time

Whispered sounds down corridors

of years, and roar of waterfalls

echoing in our ears

We see and sense Him all around

Because God is eager to be found

Dark valley-life with heaviness of cloud

acts like a muffler and a shroud

Each storm sends us to our knees

where we offer up our earnest pleas

Our reality too rocky to bear

until we sense Him drawing near

Offering faith-filled walk on water

to every drowning son and daughter

©JoyLenton2015 

Linking here with Barbie at The Weekend Brew where soul refreshment is being served. Come and join us?

reality poem pin

And we weep:ode to Charleston

/ Joy Lenton / 2 Comments

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Life is a precious gift, one we often fail to fully appreciate or see it for the wonder that it is.

And when lives seem to be prematurely torn apart, destroyed at the hands of another, then it hurts us all.

We feel the pain.

We ache with grief.

We mourn the loss.

We are connected in our weak and wounded humanity.

We see death steal vitality.

We seek answers and come up empty.

And we turn, as hearts do in their ache and confusion, toward the Author of life Himself.

We cry out.

We rage against the dying of the light.

We feel impotent in the face of injustice.

We weep.

And soon, we sense Him near.

Holding us close.

And weeping just the same…

And He wept

Outside, an ordinary day where wind

whispered a soft summer night breeze

Inside, some folks coughed and others

gently leafed through open Bible

nestled on their knees

Rippling the reverent hush

falling all around, while God’s word

was heard and devoured

And little did they know how

soon all silence would be shattered

when the room reverberated

with bullets…

Meanwhile God, contracted to a span,

incomprehensibly made man, saw

as He had on earth, how vile

humanity’s insanity can be

And He wept…

bitterly for those He loved, for

those He gave His all, who

scattered now like scarlet petals

crumpled to the ground

His heart tore, contracted even more

in sorrow, wept afresh with His

amazing grace

©JoyLenton2015

as petals fall to ground file image

We will not forget you, Charleston.

We will join our voices with your own.

We will not rest while unrest sits so deep in human souls.

We will not give up while anger rules and lives are stolen.

We will pray for hearts to be transformed and for the Prince of peace to break down barriers, transform and make lives new, bring hope and healing, forgiveness and faith for the future.

You are not alone.

We stand with you.

When manna fell

/ Joy Lenton / 1 Comment

poppy PJ pin

Manna fell

I brought my weakness

and vulnerability

joining soul-sisters

in community

And I found my voice

while notes wafted round

redolent and full

as incense in the room

Each vibration seemed

like it was sounding

a death-knell to loneliness

a call to unity

a warm, welcome caress

I drank proffered cup

swallowed bread offering

sensed a hum of healing

hovering inside of me

And my heart opened up

embraced gift of grace

made way for Presence

savoured His essence

As I took a sip of Life

and Love, manna fell

freely and I found my

grateful soul kneeling

©JoyLenton2015

It is said that every picture tells a story.

Much lies concealed, known only to the creative source behind it, though a hint of mystery still remains.

As I paint pictures with words and images here,  I’m also unfolding some of my life story and the greater narrative behind it which God is continually writing, and which I need to keep eyes wide open to see its gradual revealing.

The poem above was inspired by a gift-of-grace event I’ll be talking about on ‘Words of Joy‘ later this week. I’d be honoured if you’ll come over and take a look in a day or two.

poppy PJ poem pin

Gifts of grace

/ Joy Lenton / 6 Comments

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Day by day we are writing out our story, a living tale of all that takes place and a living testimony of God’s sustaining grace.

A birthing can occur at any moment in hearts receptive to the new and the next and the in-between.

What seems dead can be enlivened and resurrected by His power – brokenness made whole, beauty brought forth from ashes.

Although many days are shrouded and clouded by painful circumstances, God is still writing out His good and greater narrative into the margins of our lives.

Yes, even as we hover crazy-busy on this edge of space, time and eternity and so often fail to see or sense His continual presence.

We need to remember how we live and breathe and have our being in Him and He lives and breathes in us by His Spirit.

Nothing is incidental, or irredeemable. Nothing is forever lost or wasted.

All is gift and all is grace, but we need eyes to see the sacred in the secular and appreciate its daily nuances.

As we listen closer to our lives we begin to piece together the story they are telling us.

Such thoughts are shaping my daily living and making their way into today’s Five Minute Friday poem.

Grace gifts

Each day we are alive is a gift,

an unfurling, unfolding kernel

mirrored in tender bud and leaf,

so our hearts remain hopeful

of seeing a good ending

I long above all to recapture

a sense of child-like wonder,

become captivated, entranced

by delight seeded within

as this daily sacred dance begins

Each moment we linger longer

to appreciate The Moment

will help peel back layers

to reveal a gift of grace,

open our eyes, blinded by

cultural excess, dulled by stress

and wearied by naysayers

For we are the revealers

unwrapping the Gift of God,

the Truth-sayers, the Way-sharers,

keepers of Light and Love who

employ a deeper discerning

as we dive expectant into the true,

hopeful, bright-blue waters of each day

©JoyLenton2015

I’m blessed to be joining in with the wonderful writing-free-from-the-heart community of ‘Five Minute Friday’ writers over at Kate Motaung’s place as we give our best on the topic of ‘Gift’. You’re very welcome to join in. Do hop on over and check out the other posts there. It’s amazing what a rich variety of thought is stirred by a one word prompt!

grace gifts PJ file image

Looking and finding

/ Joy Lenton / 11 Comments

SAMSUNG

‘Looking and finding’

I look for the face of Christ

Now obscured by a cloud of unknowing,

a veil of uncertainty

a mist of missed moments

Grey cobweb coating distorts

all sense of His Presence

I grope blind for the grace of Christ

Now shadowed by seeds of doubt,

a complacency about the commonplace,

a turning away sigh, a dull

grey ache nothing else can

subdue, erase or ever replace

I see and sense Him everywhere

Now as the babe in the manger

An infant Christ-child, an innocent

A mild man bleeding wild-red on a cross

A risen Saviour overcoming

all pain, all sorrow, all loss

I find traces of His face

in every man, woman and child

Though it is seen the most

in those who love Him most of all

His grace, beauty, mercy and charity

reflected imperfectly ~ in you and me

©JoyLenton2015

“In Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade. Through us, he brings knowledge of Christ. Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognised by those on the way of salvation – an aroma redolent with life..” ~ 2 Corinthians 2:15 – The Message

looking and finding PJ pin

Words ebb and flow

/ Joy Lenton / 6 Comments

bare twig ~ morguefile image

Inspiration is a strange thing, ethereal and ephemeral, often inexplicable.

Words cab ebb and flow like the tide:sometimes a tsunami of them stirs the depths, at others a slight swell sweeps the sand.

A mere hint or whisper of their presence, a gentle trickle waiting to become a surging sea.

A book, a song, a scent or sight all add up to things which awaken the artist within.

Words sing into our ears from various sources as God whispers:”Look.. listen.. pay attention.”

I’ve found that when I allow space for silence and room for reading more of what feeds my soul, then I increase my ability to hear from Him.

Those words I receive dance in my heart, find a home in my soul, resonate in my spirit, fire my imagination and inspire my thinking.

Such is the case when I see the word for ‘Five Minute Friday’, pause a bit to ponder and pray and then write out what I’m hearing.

The poem below was birthed in this way. It may have taken a bit more than the allotted five minutes to write because sometimes we are so in the flow it feels impossible to stop, yes?

So here is my best poetic heart offering on the word ‘Rise’.  I am joining Kate and fellow fearless Five Minute Friday writers today for this great creative writing exercise where we pour out our imperfect words like water and share them in encouraging community.

And if your creative spark feels dim or words lie irretrievably stuck like a stagnant pond? Maybe God is calling you to rest, relax, let go and be open to their arrival at a time of His choosing. 

For we often need periods of pulling back to become refuelled and refreshed before we can enter the stream of writing again. Rest assured they will return soon; words will rise reliable as the tide.

START…

‘Words rise’

Words rise in my head

Spilling from the heart

Aching to be shared

Longing to be heard

Seeking to be said

And I pause a while

Because unless they

are inspired by God’s grace

then my words will fail,

fall flat upon the page,

be lifeless, dull and pale

When God’s vital, energising spark

ignites deep into my soul

flames spread, rise higher

as a gathering heat and fire

And I know, despite my own

weakness, emptiness and lack

I cannot refrain; despite sting

of shame, I cannot even try

to stem the tide, hold back

They flow easy like water

running over stone

And reach the shores

of another’s heart

where they rise to find

a welcome and a home

©JoyLenton2015

STOP.

words rise PJ FMF pin

Lost connectivity

/ Joy Lenton / 6 Comments

an unsplash image - busy bees PJ

Listening can feel like a lost art. What or who should we be listening to?

So many things clamour for our attention. So much passes us by in the endless flow, flotsam and jetsam of life.

People are busy as bees yet so often neglect to notice one another’s needs.

We have to pause, breathe slow and sift for the wheat within the tares and the gold in all we see and hear.

It takes discipline and time to focus on essentials, make room for whispers amidst the chaos. Heed the cries of the broken and despised.

Being attentive is hard in a fractured, distracted world, but people need and deserve to feel heard, to be accepted, to be loved.

One of the best ways we can help someone is to be truly present to them, be available with a listening ear and a caring heart.

To listen well, listen deep, listen with all our senses attuned to the words they say and those left unsaid.

It is part of being compassionate and kind to one another, being considerate, being human.

The poem below was written for #1000Speak – a call to compassion with a monthly theme.

This month’s #1000Speak theme is:‘Connection’, with a blog link up on May 20th. You can find out more here. Come and join us! 🙂

‘Lost connectivity’

can you hear me - WoJ file image

People are speaking

We hear

only what we want to hear

We hear

what is easy on our ears

We fail

to truly listen to deep

meaning behind

the words they speak

Each and every one,

whether they

know it

or not, is reaching out

Aching to be accepted

Longing to be loved

Craving connection

Yet so often

we switch off

Walk away

Tune them out mentally

Fail to appreciate

our shared humanity

Run scared from intimacy

and from saying

what might guide

conversation

in the right direction

Our passivity only leads to

lost connectivity

©JoyLenton2015

Maybe some of you reading these words are always giving out to others, to your own detriment. You’ve become drained, depleted and prone to compassion-fatigue.

Your fuel tank is on empty; there is nothing left in reserve. You’re burnt-out and weary beyond measure.

If so, then this could be the time to reconnect with the Source of all energy and strength Himself, the One who longs above all to make a connection with you.

God will refuel, refresh, renew and restore your soul as you rest in His unconditional love. And we all need that because we cannot give away what we do not have.

Getting plugged in to God will strengthen and equip us to live unselfish, compassionate lives with willing hearts and able minds.

blended clouds PJ

The way of discipleship

/ Joy Lenton / 10 Comments

as petals fall to ground file image

When I came to faith in Christ I was already a damaged, broken-by-the-world girl who viewed life with wary, shy and cautious eyes.

So my heart yearned and burned for Jesus, the only One who has ever loved me unconditionally and sets me free from guilt and shame.

He alone restores my soul and is continually healing and making me whole.

I began as an ardent follower and fan in my naming and proclaiming ‘Jesus Loves You’ sticker days.

Now, in maturity, I see how sitting at His feet is the best thing for me; spending time quietly listening while I contemplate His beauty, seeking to know Him more fully as I learn to rest in His finished work on the cross and my new identity in Him.

And aiming more and more to be an imitator of my Teacher, a messenger for the Master, a grateful grace-dweller and Truth-revealer.

I want to lean in close like John and Mary did, believe and live as though I am His beloved.

The way I’ve travelled has been full of pain and pitfalls to fight through as much as it has been gifted with grace, but my years of yearning after Jesus will never end.

He is my everything, all the more as time passes and my deep dependency grows stronger in weakness.

As I prayed this morning, the words I sensed on my heart made their way into the poem below.

It may have taken longer than the allotted five minutes to write but it has become my contribution to the word “Follow” as I join Kate and fellow five-minute friday writers who spill out their heart-words for us to read and share. Come join us?

‘Pilgrim path’

Follow hard after God’s heart

Follow through dark valleys, rocky paths

Keep your mind aligned to Mine

Keep going though the Way seems blind

Yield yourself willingly

Surrender each day to Me

Watch where I am leading you

No matter where others are going to

My path is hard; My path is long

But I keep you steady and make you strong

Listen above all to My gentle voice

Quieten yourself away from life’s noise

Be an example; be a shining light

Show My love, My power and might

Reveal the world’s great need of Me

and how it’s seen in dependency

Come, My pilgrim child, take My hand

As you follow Me your life will expand

©JoyLenton2015