You don't truly know What it's like to live hollow Having nowhere to go Living in a jail cell's shadow
Clinging to who you used to be Silently hoping for your dignity Feeling like your honor is gone Is this life worth going on?
One man's living grief One man living in sorrow There is no sense of relief Where there's no tomorrow
Steps to a man's imagination A good man begins disintegration Subjected to every indignation The fire in his eyes is the only indication
That anything of the man goes on So much of his soul is used up and gone There can be no disguise What's left of the man is in his eyes
One man's living grief One man living in sorrow There is no sense of relief When there's no tomorrow
Though chasing the bad It is in his blood The pending outcome is said His name is dragged through the mud
There's a killer on the loose But the wrong man wears the noose It's a tragic loss of innocence Rolling up on the ways of violence
One man's living grief One man living in sorrow There is no sense of relief When there's no tomorrow
Time is up with a shift in gears There'll be a slow parade of tears Living isn't easy with a heart full of tragedy This is the crush of life's unfunny comedy
Drop by drop is the blood by which we die Are there no more tears left to cry? Little by little, we learn to live the lie This hour of need doesn't even know why
One man's living grief One man living in sorrow There is no sense of relief When there's no tomorrow
This city belongs to all its children - rich and poor It's a natural fact that no one can ignore In a slow knife of the cruelest fate The answers are outside the prison's gate
This twisted tale of jaded circumstance Ends on probability and not on sheer chance Broken hearts still know the romance And believers still hold the card of second chance
One man's living grief One man living in sorrow There is no sense of relief When there's no tomorrow
(c) July 8, 2024 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” – Ronald Reagan
“People’s souls are like gardens. You can’t turn your back on someone because his garden’s full of weeds. You have to give him water and lots of sunshine.” – Nancy Farmer, author (b. 7 Jul 1941)
As citizens of the kingdom and our nation We live with tension and fascination Walking tall in our community We live the love of God's good family
By doing this, we take our Christian cue As we study and find God's good clues Starting in our mirrors to align Ourselves as we live with the divine
We face this patiently and unafraid Adhering to the plans that God has made Mirrored to the meaning of God's words said Keeping these in our hearts and heads
As Christ's ambassadors, we wear His seal Through the shining light of His appeal Giving good to all around in our community We walk this Earth as God's holy family
We do this as we face a rebellion of humanity Hostile to faith and caught up in immorality We walk our faith to bring our Father's good As we serve to make God's ways plainly understood
We find this world filled with levels of toxicity And full of its worst adverse complexity We must find our way toward God's healing grace Living anchored through the gospel's embrace
Bitterness is but one of the Devil's schemes To live in the steps of forgiveness is our dream As we cancel the debts plainly in good conscience Praying God's love be made felt by our presence
God's love compels us to live our days in love As He limits our options for the good from above His Son died for all that we might restore The brokenness by what choose to live for
Individualism and American ways alter Christianity Therefore, we must be careful of isolation's vanity As part of our good faith, we live for our community This being the new creation reconciled as God's family
There are sins enough to count, but should we? The message of the Bible is to bridge this travesty Reconciled to all on this Earth within God's love We are committed to this reconciliation by Heave above
The ministry of reconciliation is under God's control Placed there by Christ for the good of our souls We Christians are to live for what it is He died for There is nothing less wanted, nor anything more
This is what it is that God says is needed Not the casted stone, but forgiveness heeded Humanity is filled with imperfections to heal Life is hard and we should live by grace in our tale
Let's put no stumbling blocks into anyone's way With wide open hearts, we must live in God's ways We are to walk in peace endeavoring to be humble Allowing God's grace to prevent us from the crumble
The crumble that comes from broken relationship This is the truest way to walk our worship Let's add value to our godly sense of community As we are after all together in God's family
(c) July 7, 2024 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
“We are not to reflect on the wickedness of men but to look to the image of God in them, an image which, covering and obliterating their faults, an image which, by its beauty and dignity, should allure us to love and embrace them.” – John Calvin, in Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 Volumes
“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” – 2 Corinthians 5:20 (NIV)
“The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.” – Benjamin Rush (1806)
In the first end, we objectify What we were once taught to deify But being nothing but the average man We still seek to do the best we can
We get so very much wrong Trying to model ourselves and belong We misunderstand that it is to be strong In the end, finding we got so much wrong
Yet, here we are, knowing Our need to keep growing Longing to get it right and knowing If we're going to, we'll need to keep growing
In all our shame and desperate knowing We keep our standing and keep on growing Learning in each step and knowing That life lived well is about our growing
Learning to be a better sort of man A better brother, father, and lover who can See the error in our imprinted ways In feeling for those we love, we change our ways
Somewhere along life's long way We begin to see what we do and say Can hurt others without meaning to do so And in this seeing, our reasons begin to grow
Yet, here we are, knowing Our need to keep growing Longing to get it right and knowing If we're going to, we'll need to keep growing
In all our shame and desperate knowing We keep on standing and keep on growing Learning with each step and knowing That life lived well is about our growing
In the end, it's not for others we change Finding the strength to rearrange It's for ourselves that we become better men Repenting as we do from our bias and our sins
As we, each of us, finds our path forward We find an impact pushing society toward The greater truths of love and equality Until at least we learn we've embraced true society
Yet, here we are, knowing Of our constant need to keep growing Longing to get it right, yet knowing If we are ever to do it, we'll need some growing
As each of us find our foothold forward We within the impact of moving ever toward The needs to embrace love and equality Until at last we have found our true society
(c) July 5, 2024 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
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 