“It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going, because they were holding on to something. That there is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.”
– J.R.R. Tolkien, voiced by Samwise Gamgee, in The Two Towers
Getting right with God in every way Is an explanation made every day To see what we believe and understand And what it means to study what God commands
The soundest study is done creatively As we openly examine humanity's depravity Pushing toward and forward to how we should be That is, if, we want the best for humanity
No one is righteous but by God's grace Instead, conscious of sin, we seek God's embrace Spreading the gospel of believers as we can We seek to repent, conforming God inside man
A study of the law reveals our measure As we live our lives for what we treasure Still, we come up short, and in need of redemption Receiving God's grace in our contemplation
Christ came as a living sacrifice to atone So that God might reconcile humanity alone To conform our lives to what we believe Fulfilling our purpose, as best that we might conceive
Growing in our beliefs with solid confidence We become justified by Jesus in His providence This come through our faith, not our performance This is not by our works, but by our conformance
Not by faith, but through faith's connection We find the cross provides our direction To live our lives for what is that Jesus did And letting this shine and not be hid
Our faith is centered on Jesus's death and resurrection To cast our lives fully in the righteous direction We must keep the truths revealed in our contemplation Knowing that it is through Christ we know redemption
Jews and Gentiles alike must look toward God's light To bring the clarity of faith to this world's night We are alike on the level ground at the foot of the cross This is the universal shift and gain that is never a loss
Sharing the same needs, we respond to our Father's call As we come to know unity in the righteousness of the law Bringing justice agree in forbearance and justification This becomes ushered in as the prevailing explanation
All of scripture and prophecy points in testimony Toward the messiahship of Christ without acrimony In all the truths of righteousness that have been revealed There is nothing in this remaining concealed
In the great wide open of faith we have been given Is the conduit through which we are forgiven It is enough that we have come to believe And that our salvation is justified as received
It's not about me and you that it has been done But in the atonement provided through God's son The deed of sacrifice is that which is fully justified By and through the justifier who for three days died
Shortcomings, sins, and patterns of our own deceptions Were replaced that we might have our redemption Punishing the sin, preserving the sinner is God's way That became fulfilled on the cross that righteous day
There is no boasting of what was given to us freely There is simply what has been done for you and me It is not about obedience to God's unchanging law But only about, instead, responding to God's loving call
Despite this wealth of grace, we are still to follow the law This then, after all, is the foundation for us all From baptism to communion, let it not be the least hid That our belief is based on gratitude for what Jesus did
(c) February 16, 2025 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
“It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.” – Romans 4:13 (NIV)
Seven cycles in a stream of errors The collaboration of history might be seen In terms of a series of eras As these are experienced by human beings
It feels like a long time in the coming As we waited in place as others came running History cannot be told in an echo chamber's frame Just when is a game more than simply a game?
There's a pensive mood stuck between the ages Like something oddly familiar on the pages We are hanging tough but going almost nowhere Two coins as tokens pay civilization's fare
Dull anxiety defines the feelings of a deeper flaw Felt in the rational sense of reason's law That we are fixated on the call of the rise and fall The mourning of yesterday captures the hearts of us all
We stare into tomorrow, and soon, that, too, is past The only thing we're sure of is that humanity will last It's funny how the cycles of time build legacies While we all hold onto what passes for our agency
From the present back to our ages of antiquity Each era is a tale of discoveries and technology That wave after wave brings war and diplomacy And through these came our arts and our industry
Until our persistence gets us unstuck between the ages Casting about in the shadows, reading the pages We know we must hang tough if we're to get anywhere This is the magic that pays our civilization's fare
Despite life's complexity and probability of flaws We rest assured that here in the rationality of law We find we can measure the patterns of rise and fall In studying our yesterdays, we find the future of us all
Modern culture rests on the spirit of past exploration Built step-by-step until we reached our living nation The shared lineage of our people is what came to nurture There in our self-interest are the seeds of our cultivated future
All of this is built in the layers that make up history In a system of choices, there is something to this mystery Revolutions lead to reformation that shapes our possibility One by one, we live to see this testament to man's capability
(c) February 15, 2025 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
You can find it in the record-spinning round There in the melody is where it is found Listen carefully to the words of the song You'll find the truth of our love where it belongs
Where this is love, there is the best life Embraced in peace and working against strife Expressed by the roses that turn this world sweet I found my best friend when we came to meet
It's there in a song somewhere You can hear it floating in the air The melody completes me now As it makes me think of you, and somehow
Let's me dream of every time I've thought of you These dreams have become a garden for us to walk through You with flowers in your hair and a smile on your face Your sweet fragrance has left its lasting trace
Time has passed, and we have made our connection To the point where we are looking in the same direction As we walk side-by-side, our two hearts find love As the silvery moon comes to shine on us from above
It's there in a song somewhere You can hear it floating in the air The melody completes me now As it makes me think of you, and somehow
We come to know the cure for love is to love more On bended knee, I come to lovingly implore Let's live this life in the together of happiness Finding our dreams in the each other of our bliss
Never above you, never below, but always beside We have come to walk together, stride matching stride This love is the beauty of two souls becoming one As our eyes meet, promising to never become undone
It's there in a song somewhere You can hear it floating in the air The melody completes me now As it makes me think of you, and somehow...
(c) February 14, 2025 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
“4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” – 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIV)
Heading out of Australia to escape this Aussie winter. First stop Japan, then UK/Ireland and if work doesn't call me back, onto Chicago. I will make it up as I go along
ALOHA PROMISES FOREVER 