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Friday 25 January 2013

seaglass



discarded
broken, tossed aside
sharp and hurtful she rides
adrift in an ocean of aquamarine
starfish and seaweeds
rhythms and tides
scoured with sand
buffeted by
the ceaseless shrieking wind
she floats along
between ship and sea strand
ocean and land
hearing the gull’s cry
and the whalesong
dragged through the submarine ridges
the narrow clefts
and rocky ledges
until they have smoothed
and polished and softened
her jagged edges
through a journey of currents
and whirlpools and torrents
she is cast on a shore
immigrant, foreigner, stranger
waiting
seaglass among the flotsam
her brilliance shines
in sonlight reflected
and hands reach to her
once more.
 

copyright Jo Collett 2013

Wednesday 16 January 2013

Eternity


Isaiah 57:15   " For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."


In Sydney Australia in 1932, Arthur Stace heard the text of Isaiah 57 in a church sermon. The word “Eternity” from verse 15, (which in the King James Version of the Bible used at that time was the only place in the Bible in which the word was found) made a deep impression in Arthur’s mind. Arthur, who had experienced a very difficult upbringing and had little formal education, was to spend the next 35 years performing his own special ministry. In chalk, in beautiful copperplate handwriting, he ministered to the passing public by writing the word “Eternity” on footpaths around Sydney. It’s estimated he wrote the word at least half a million times.
In Australia there is a special compassion for the underprivileged which I think is a unique quality of this country, perhaps extending from our convict past. We use the term “battler”, never “loser”. We like to see the underdog triumph. There is something so genuine about Arthur’s simple faith, his commitment and dedication to doing just one Godly act so well, which still greatly impresses and commands respect from the Australian public and he is one of our national heroes.
Arthur died in 1967 at the age of 83. A permanent replica of his handwriting is embedded in the footpath near Sydney town hall. As the 21st century began, his “Eternity” sign lit up the Sydney Harbour Bridge during celebratory fireworks, and was included in the opening ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Noted Australian poet Douglas Stewart has described him in verse:

"ETERNITY, it lades like morning dew,
Like morning dew and he is lost in it;
Yet one can say, as one can say of few,
It was the greatest of all the words he wrote"

Douglas Stewart "Arthur Stace" (fragment) 


Arthur reminded us all that God is eternal. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow (Hebrews 13:8). We are also reminded by the word “Eternity” that we are finite beings. We will die, yet we have the opportunity, through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, to spend eternity with Him. What a great promise is held in the verse of Isaiah. We can live forever, in the wonder and joy of knowing Jesus. Not only that, but if we come to Him now, in faith and humility, He will now revive our spirits and our hearts. He will create in us a pure heart and renew a steadfast spirit within us. (Psalm 51:10)
Eternity for the Christian does not begin when we die. It begins when we commit our lives to Him. God has promised in His word that He came to give us life to the full (John 10:10).  In this world we will have troubles, but we are not to fear, for He has overcome the world (John 16:33). He will never leave us or forsake us ( Hebrews 13:5) and when we die, we have the assurance that He has already prepared a place in heaven for us in His Father’s house (John 14:2).
Eternity – there will be a time for us in heaven when all the cares and troubles of this world are ended, when pain and sorrow ceases, when we are reunited with loved ones gone before us, and when we will know the unfathomable experience of being with Jesus, forever loving and worshipping Him. To paraphrase 1 Corinthians 13, now we can only see through a glass darkly, but then we will see Him face to face. Now we only partly understand the things of God, then we will know Him as fully as we possibly can.  

Thank You, Heavenly Father, for reminding me this week that You are eternal.

Monday 14 January 2013

Retail therapy and Prayer


It’s January, and before the Christmas decorations have barely had time to disappear from the supermarket shelves, Easter buns and chocolate eggs are appearing. It seems that our two main days of Christian celebration are turning into nothing more than a shopping spree for many who may have little or no idea about what they are celebrating. The frenzy of pre-Christmas present buying continues into the frenzy of January post-Christmas/New Year sales. Sometimes the whole exercise, without Christ, can become as hollow as those chocolate eggs.

We have so much stuff that seems so attractive and important, but isn’t. We buy things only to find we need more things, or we wish we hadn’t bought this instead of that; the dilemmas are endless. Still we are not satisfied.

One thing is needed.

Sometimes when people pray, they approach God as a celestial shopkeeper, purveyor of many specialities. Like the earthly shop assistants, most of the time God is in the background, of no special interest. But then something is needed – please God, provide a cure for my illness, You are my only hope. Please God, I need a job. Please God, my finances are in a total mess, could you provide an unexpected windfall? Please God, lead us to a house we can afford. We can go to God with our shopping list, our eyes on the gifts and not the Giver.

Our Lord Jesus provided a format for prayer for His disciples, recorded in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 6, verses 9-13. It is a communal prayer, for “us” rather than “me” and begins by acknowledging and worshipping our Father God. Only one small verse “Give us this day our daily bread” refers to our physical needs, and even this can be symbolic of Jesus, the bread of life, whose broken body is remembered in the bread of communion.

Those of us with children know the joy of giving them things that they want and need, but no parent wants to be approached only for what they provide in material terms. True joy comes in giving and receiving so much more – the love, shared experiences, values, memories, relationship. Our Heavenly Father is exactly the same.

God knows what we need. He’s interested when we talk to him about our health, or job or finances or dreams. But first He draws us to Himself.

One thing is needed.

Mary found it sitting at the feet of Jesus whilst her sister Martha was bustling about with the meal preparations (Luke 10:38-42). Paul found it in a blaze of light on the road to Damascus (Acts 9). A lonely Samaritan woman found it beside a well as she thirsted for something more than water (John 4). Nicodemus searched for it under cover of darkness (John 3).

When we come into relationship with Our Heavenly Father, through repentance and faith in the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ and receive His indwelling Holy Spirit, we have what we most need in this life. He will always be with us. He will never fail or forsake us. He does not always promise an easy, untroubled life, but He promises Himself throughout our lives.

And that is the best thing.


Wednesday 2 January 2013

Starting the poetry year with romance....



Embroidery


here I embroider in words
hearts flowers excessively
beautiful birds
the intricate, the possible
threads of phrases, colours
bright of every hue
and you
in every syllable, fashioned there
gossamer wings and angel’s hair
I ply, like a needle, the pen
to chart a life, to catch
the sunlight on your cheek
the expression of your smile
a roguish glance and a rakish grin
words to tie you to a page
like stitches in a pattern there
testament to love
and yet
you breathe
I leave you live
and love dissipates
lighter than air




 
A love


You are a gossamer spider web
that entraps me with filaments finely spun
delicate silken circles shining in the sun
I fly into the tendrils of your embrace
not knowing I will never escape

You are a fast flowing stream. I dip
my hands into your fountains grasping
for what is only a dream. I clasp
and the water flows onward beyond my catching
caressing my soul with fleeting temptation

You are the sun that warms my face, light
that floods my mind with consciousness
the touch of a barely dreamed of embrace
knowledge in the depth of your eyes that takes
its own flight

I am lost and found in you, time ceases and takes its
own moments in you. I wait for time and know
the pain of the unfilled hands, the woven web
the stream ever rushing freely, midnight struck
and time moving taking its own flow







Book Review "Micro Memoirs" by Dan Campbell



Reviewed by Jo Collett

I’m a very serious person. I speak softly. I laugh silently. So when a piece of fiction actually makes me laugh out loud, it’s got to be something out of the ordinary. Oliver Sacks produced some mighty guffaws in my household when I read parts of “The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat.” I laugh audibly at the exploits of Alexander McCall Smith’s eccentric academics in the Professor Von Igelfield series; and I could add the LOL comment on most of the witty memoirs that Dan Campbell posts on a regular basis on Smith Magazine’s Six Word Memoir site.

In his book “Micro memoirs” Dan has produced a collection of his six-word memoirs, neatly organised into various categories, including asylums/medical, gardening/trees/plants and marriage/family, to name a few. The six word memoir or story has become a genre in its own right, and a visit to Smith magazine’s website will illustrate to the uninitiated the clever and insightful ways that writers can describe their life in six words.

Dan Campbell’s humour is very clever and witty and never cruel. We are introduced to a cast of regular characters – his longsuffering Cherokee wife, his mother-in-law, pet parrot and garden scarecrow. Many of the one-liners are self-deprecating “Won first prize as American Idle!” There’s a contented gentleness and fun that shines through: “Wife pours me coffee during argument.”

Those of us who appreciate Dan’s writing on the Smith website know that every now and again amid the hilarious offerings, Dan slips in a memoir that simply knocks one’s socks off with its eloquence, or profundity or poetry or depth. Some of these are also included in this compilation, amongst them “Dancing is poetry of the feet.” It’s hard to select just one example. (You should buy the book).

Dan is a talented writer and poet and more of his creative work can be viewed on his blog : http://dancampbell2011.wordpress.com/.

“Micro memoirs” is a thoroughly delightful book. It should be read in the same way as one sips a glass of fine wine, slowly, savouring each portion, enjoying the effect of each memoir before moving along to the next. (I actually enjoyed both the book and a glass of fine wine together).  Congratulations Dan, on producing this collection, which will hopefully be the first of many.

“Micro Memoirs” by Dan Campbell, Publish America, Baltimore 2011.

for more six-word-memoirs, visit Smith magazine: www.smithmag.net

Galatians Five


God has laid on my heart a clear message for this coming year. It’s based on Galatians chapter 5. In this chapter Paul was addressing the religiosity of his day, and the Pharisaic legalism that was creeping into the church in Galatia. The strife that this was causing was destroying the unity of the church and the working of God’s Holy Spirit.

Paul begins this chapter with the bold assertion that Christ has set us free, has liberated us to live in the ever-unfolding wonder of the workings of His Holy Spirit. Later in the chapter he describes the contrasting works of the human, fallen flesh as opposed to the manifestations of the Spirit.

There is so much to meditate on in this chapter. Over the past two years I’ve done a lot of reading in the area of church conflict and hurt and there is much in this chapter to remind us of the contentions that can arise within the body of Christ as well as in the wider world. If I feel led by God into writing more in that area I will do so as the year unfolds.

I love verse 13. We are called to freedom; but freedom has its price and its fulfilment of obligations to the One who set us free. We use our freedom to serve. In a Christian framework which in the western world seems besotted with “leadership” we are told to serve one another with love.

The Holy Spirit is not frequently mentioned in some churches. In others the manifestations of the Holy Spirit seem to take centre stage in every service. Again I will further develop some thoughts about this as God directs. It’s a joy to read the Bible and learn more and more of what it contains and it’s also a joy to know the presence of God in His three forms – Father, Son and Holy Spirit and to experience a vibrant and sometimes astonishing relationship with Him on an ongoing daily basis.

Towards the end of last year I changed churches, not without some great sadness over leaving a church and ministries and people that I love. It’s a joy, however to be excited about new areas of ministry which will be opening up in this coming year and I look forward very much to what God will be doing and how He will reveal more of Himself and His purposes in my life and that of my family and church community.

“If we live by the (Holy) Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.- If by the (Holy) Spirit we have our life [in God], let us go forward walking in line, our conduct controlled by the Spirit.” Galatians 5:25





Tuesday 1 January 2013

Happy New Year 2013

Dear Heavenly Father,
We come to You at a time when the world is celebrating the commencement of another year, and acknowledge that You are the God of all time, for all eternity. Thank You that our lives are in Your hands, that You are with us during all the times and seasons in our lives, in joyful times and times of great grief and stress. Help us to be mindful of the passing of time, that we will use our lives and talents for good purposes and not waste all that You have entrusted us with. . Bless all who visit here, I pray, that they may see Your hand at work to bless and encourage and teach.
Father, more and more we see a world that is desperate and hungry and searching for peace and guidance and love. We pray for Christian witness throughout the globe, that your people will be salt and light in dark places and that Your Holy Spirit, shining through your people, will draw many to You and bring forth fruit for Your kingdom.
We ask these things in the precious name of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.