Your Dying Spouse 751 - Bring Back The World You Love {Five Minute Friday}

It can be pretty distressing to see, the scowls beneath the masks, the curses mumbled, the angry eyes.

There's bee a lot of good, with people trying to help those less ortunate, keeping neighbours' spirits up.

But there's been a dark side to lockdowns, stay-at-home, and social distancing. I'm sure you've seen it at the grocery, waiting in line for take-out food, and sometimes even in your own home.

And it's up to us to bring back the world we knew.

You can't do it through legislation.

You can't tweet it back to life.

It's only through example, and through love, that care and compassion will return.

To bring back the world you love,

this must be your task;

keep a healing touch through gloves,

and smile beneath your mask.

So many now are stressed and frazzled,

so many lost their certainty,

and in the moment won't be dazzled

by talk of God's eternity.

But ministry, it can go on

through kindly eyes, a wave of hand,

and soon will come another dawn

that you can help bring to the land

sunrise where love again begins,

a daybreak where compassion wins.

Music from Jewel, with Only Kindness Matters.

I do try to answer each comment in a timely fashion, but with Internet providers really stretched, I have only about half of the access I once did. Please bear with me!

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.

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.

Your Dying Spouse 750 - Come Dance With Me! {Five Minute Friday}

It's a pretty dark time for a lot of people, and there's quite a bit in the religious media over what God's role actually is, here.

Some say He could stop COVID-19, and will, after He's made His point.

I have to disagree with that; not that He can't stop it, but that He's using it to try to make a point.

God's subtle, and does not need to kill a lot of people to get something across.

I think the reason He won't stop it is because He would be contradicting Himself; He gave us the free will to choose Him, and if He stepped in to alter a fallen Creation...then what would be the need for free will?

What would our acceptance of Him be worth, under those circumstances?

What need for faith, and all of the good things that come from it?

What need for the Passion, if all could be righted with a snap of trancendent fingers?

No.

I think He's crying with us, and with holy tears streaming down His face, He's holding out His hands to us.

With a yearning, and an appeal.

He knows we're upset with Him, and maybe even questioning His love.

He knows we don't understand, and are ready to turn away.

And still, He holds out His hands.

It's all He can do.

Please dance with Me.

Tho' all seems to be coming apart, please put your hands in My hands, and your heart in Mine.

Tho' it be your Passion...please...take My hands.

The whole sad world's under attack,

and it all seems very flawed,

but don't in sorrow turn your back

upon your bashful dancing God.

He waits for you to take His hand

(for your touch He can't compel)

and soar a reel above the land,

to birdsong and an angel's bell,

out and through a golden door

in innocence of revely,

then set safe at home once more

in afterglow of melody,

where no virus born can ever kill

God's bluebird on your windowsill.

Here are The Dubliners, with Lord of the Dance

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.

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.

Your Dying Spouse 749 - When It's Over

Someday, sooner than later, COVID-19 will be part of history, and life will return to normal...and yes, pretty much what it was before all this happened.

Folks will get together, warily at first...people will go to cinemas and stadiums and, praise be, churches...

...and they'll shake hands, once again.

Let's just not forget our deliverance.

The outer world will likely not be much different.

Let's us be different, in our active gratitude

When this all is over

and death's fell hand is stayed,

walk barefoot in the clover,

and through the greenleaf glade

to meet the solemn promises

that you made in the night

among the Doubting Thomases

who feared the dearth of light.

You vowed then to breathe free the air,

to hold another's hand and run

with only trusting childhood's care

to the Father and the Son,

and give them thanks, to weep your praise

for the gift of healing days.

Music from Judy Collins, with Both Sides Now.

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.

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.

Your Dying Spouse 748 - Rainbow Connection {Five Minute Friday}

The COVID-19 cris will pass, and the world will move on.

But some people won't.

Most of us, we'll have been lucky; we won't have been very sick (if sick at all), we won't have lost a family member or close friend, we'll still have a job, or one to which we can return (and I thank God for President Trump, perhaps the only leader who can rebuild the economy now).

But a lot of lives will have been wrecked, and these folks won't come along for the clmib back into the green, sunlit lands.

And they will be largely ignored; this thing was different.

COVID-19 underscored a common vulnerability. It could strike anyone anywhere.

Those who lost much are an uncomfortable reminder of that, living monuments to there but for the grace of God go I.

We'll want to forget COVID-19, and the threat.

And we'll want to forget the victims, too.

Please don't.

These times will soon be passing,

and the days will promise fair,

but don't forget the lasting

need to love and care

for those whose joy has been suspended,

whose faith's been badly shaken,

whose stable lives have been upended,

whose loved ones have been taken.

They'll live in shadows down the years

when our smaller shades have passed away,

and in their sad vale, long past tears,

they'll need a friend to stop and stay,

not for duty, but by choice

to listen to a grief-choked voice.

I'm almost embarrassed to mention how I'm doing...the problems of one person don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world, after all.

Let's just say things are far worse, leave it at that. Cancer's winning.

Nonetheless, I still believe in rainbows and singing frogs. Won't you, as well?

Please, believe with me.

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.

Your Dying Spouse 747 - Pandemic Revival

There is a God

or

there is not a God.

I believe in God

or

I do not believe in God.

These, the boundaries of Pascal's Wager.

If there is no God, what I believe is irrelevant.

If there is a God, if I believe in Him, I'm saved.

If there is a God and I don't believe  in Him, I'm screwed.

The smart money is therefor on belief.

And that's where a lot of people are going in these days of COVID-19, but they're missing a certain and vital point...namely, it's not just about belief.

It's about the ransom in blood that was paid to save us.

Don't, for Pete's sake (who's Pete, anyway?) discourage an unformed belief in friends or relatives...it's a starting point.

Do give instruction, when the crisis has passed.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: [20] Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.

Matthew 28:19-20 (KJV)

It seems that this pandemic's caused

a kind of new revival;

people see that life is paused,

and focus on survival.

As sign, it is encouraging,

but we must not forget

that revival's not faith-foraging,

nor is it Pascal's bet.

It's wrong to put your trust in God

as something like insurance;

the holy roadm ust be trod

with devotion and endurance,

and the knowing that it all begins

with the ransom paid for our sins.

This sonnet first appeared as a comment on Debi Walters' wonderful blog, The Romantic Vineyard, on April 14, 2020

Here's the late, great Kenny Rogers with  The Gambler.

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.