Your Dying Spouse 706 - General Jesus MacArthur {FMF}

I have a flat belly. I'm not saying that as a matter of pride, but when I look down, I can now see the tumour in the navel, bulging out. And that sucks.

So too, one on my forearm, by my elbow...who would have believed that?

Things just aren't going well, I'm tired, and sometimes I have the nagging thought...just give in, give up, let go of life.

Fall into the arms of Jesus.

Trouble, is, Jesus isn't entertaining my arm-falling application. He's puffing on His corncob pipe, looing at me through His Ray-Bans, and expecting me to quit whining.

He looks a bit like MacArthur.

Duty, honour, country. His country.

And He's right. If I give in, say I've gone as far as I can go, I'll negate of everything I've lived and written.

Faith and hope were conditional, after all.

But it cannot be thus; faith and hope may be conditioned only by death in God's service.

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility;
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger. . . .

William Shakespeare, Henry V, Act 3, Scene 1

And so, we step out onto the wire, and below lies the abyss.

Every day the danger grows;

with every step along the wire,

from below the hot wind blows

and the flames are rising higher.

The rising smoke swirls and hides

the other end; how far to go?

The wire sways, the shifting tides

of fear that those who dare must know.

Another foot, I slide and pause,

and then the next, with pounding heart

that will not bow to safety's laws;

for glory I must play my part.

Some call me mad, some call me brave,

but I must walk, my soul to save.

This sonnet first appeared on December 2, 2019, as a comment on Joe Sicardi's blog post, To Dare Mighty Things, on his excellent blog, Father Says.

Here's a video clip from the marvelous film The Walk, set to music.

Thanks to Carol Ashby, Blessed Are The Pure Of Heart is back on Kindle, and will be available in paperback soon.

Friends are everything. I couldn't have done it.

Marley, the canine waif from Afghanistan, whom WE helped save, has a Facebook page! Please drop by to see how happy he is today.

Below are my recent releases on Kindle -please excuse their presence in the body of the blog. I haven't the energy to get them up as 'buttons' in the sidebar. You can click on the covers to go to the Amazon links.