30: Free to live

1 Corinthians 12:20-22, 25-26

20 But now are they many members, yet but one body.

21 And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

22 Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble are necessary:

25 That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.

26 And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.

Free to live

12/30/07

This path I entered years ago

Has come at last to end

And now I stand with aching heart

But joy for my lost friend.

I walked the path the Lord bade me

In faith, though strength did fade

But faith proved true and through the end

With honor have I stayed.

So now my path's to be my own

And free I am to live

To walk, and wish, and will, and want

All God's blessing He will give.

It felt like I had lost a friend in leaving family behind. Truth is, it was more an imagined ideal I had hoped for that was lost. Family should love and care about each other; what makes each person special and unique coming together in a unity of love and respect.

It was not so, but I can do all I can to someday build a family like I wished so much mine had been.

15: Into the Setting Sun

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-12

1 to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 A time to weep, and time to laugh; a time to mourn, and time to dance;

5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;

6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?

10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.

11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

12 I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.

Into the Setting Sun

12/4/05

The sun drifts down

Trailing ribbons of color

It's fleeing brilliance

Sets the world in relief

As it draws a blanket of

Stillness over the land.

Perhaps that is why

My heart is always drawn

Westward into the setting sun,

Wanting the light to return

To warm a troubled heart

To share the hidden beauties

To give light and life to all.

But the sun's path is set

And I must wait it's return.

I thank God that

In the dark of its absence

I learn to love

The light and life he brings.

Letting go is hard at times and it is often beyond our ability to control. But I think rather than settling into depression at a loss, it is better to consider what it provided and then turn yourself around to welcome the new opportunities afforded at the rising of a new day. It is by learning to recognize the value and beauty in what has passed that we can learn to recognize the potential in what is coming.

Joy In the Morning, by Natalie Sleeth

I prefer the recording I have of this song, but this was the best option of all the ones on YouTube. (The Judson University one came second.)

I've loved this song for years since singing it in high school and even learned how to play it, though it's been years since I've had piano access. This song was one of the very first on the playlist that helped me feel hope.