Saturday's Citation: Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
Oh no! It is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken -
It is the star to every wandr'ing bark,
Whose worth's unknown
Although his height be taken.

Love is not Time's fool; though rosy lips and cheeks
Beneath his bending sickle's compass come.
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom -
If this be error, and upon me proved,
Then I never writ; nor no man ever loved.

-William Shakespeare (at his very best!)

Dear Refuge

Sometimes life can be summed up in a few lines of an old hymn.

Dear refuge of my weary soul
On Thee, when sorrows rise
On Thee, when waves of trouble roll
My fainting hope relies.

To Thee I tell each rising grief
For thou alone canst heal
Thy Word can bring a sweet relief
For every pain I feel.

But oh! When gloomy doubts prevail
I fear to call Thee mine;
The springs of comfort seem to fail
And all my hopes decline.

But gracious God! Where shall I flee?
Thou art my only trust -
And still my soul would cleave to Thee
Though prostrate in the dust.

Hast Thou not bid me seek Thy face?
And shall I seek in vain?
And can the ear of sovereign grace
Been deaf when I complain?
No, still the ear of sovereign grace
Attends the mourner's prayer -
Oh may I ever find access
To breathe my sorrows there.

Thy mercy seat is open still
Here let my soul retreat
With humble hope attend Thy will -
And wait beneath Thy feet.

-Anne Steele

A New Tradition

So Brian has his Wednesday's Word. Jonathan has his Friday's Foto. And... I'm adding my own weekly contribution to the blogosphere... Saturday's Citation. So... it's cheesy. But... knowing me... what can you expect???!? ;) I love quotes. I hope to be able to post something worth thinking about, now and again... some worthwhile food for thought. What with this new "Blogger Beta" business, I've been trying (for quite some time) to post a "text box" on the edges of things for my quotes... but alas! I have no mind for technology... or html. ;) So, here goes.


Saturday (give or take an hour and a half), December 16th, 2006 -

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

~Theodore Roosevelt

The Setting Sun

...my hope runs underneath it all,
the day that I'll be home...

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Art thou tired and art thou weary?
Run to Jesus, weakened soul...
Here is grace and strength aplenty,
Here the spent - in Him - are whole.

He did not promise a clear lit pathway
Or a life just how we wanted
Yet mercy waits on poor in spirit
And attends all His faint hearted.

With tempting, we are not overcome
Nor perplexed, despairing
Nor shall life's sometime heavy load
Break our backs in bearing.

What use is there in hoping, then,
If all is now complete?
What joy in rest shall we possess,
If we strengthen our own feet?

Mighty One, God of armies
I stand before Thee, quaking
The earth - within my head - is spinning
The ground - around me - shaking.

Yet I know in whom I have believed
Though I know not the way
This rock, this anchor holds me firm
Till His unending day.

For aught though now we languish
We do not pass through this unseen;
His Word, His life, His truth are ours -
... In Him true victory.

If faith is in a future home
Then here I hope to run
Not tangled, hindered; but rejoicing
Toward bright setting of the sun.

Rejoice, my fellow soldier!
Though night is coming on...
The dark is for a moment
Until bright day shall dawn.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Just a few simple lines penned in a dark moment of trial... illumined yet by glorious hope. These moments that try the soul test our trust in His ever-faithfulness. May my faith - by His grace - be proved ever true.

You are never too young to think about it...
I cannot wait to be home.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
No greater joy do I desire
My soul shall pass through flood and fire
Yet after valley there is the height
Where faith - at last - becometh sight.