The outside world focuses on the forgiving At best, if at all, and not the giving As we link arms serving on behalf of the joy From day one, this was God's intention to deploy
As babe was born poor and in a lonely manger The angels appeared as friends, not strangers Bring with them, good news for all the people Not just the Pharisees abiding in God's temple
As sheep and shepherds stood, they quietly shivered The first joy of Christ was gracefully delivered Every day of life, we unpack the greatest gift It's the love of Christ that has healed our rift
Through Christ, God gave of Himself to all of us It is through His grace and love given just because There is no sort of program or thinker's philosophy Love is our victory and the whole of our theology
There is nothing else that can quite please us Quite the way that serving our Lord Jesus does We need to let the words of the savior wash us clean That with the Holy Spirit, we might come to discern
We live as branches of the fruitful vine We keep the path of love by heeding the divine We are mandated to keep to loving each other In all that we do, we are commended to love one another
This in short, is the mic-dropping moment In its release from Hell's unholy torment There is a restlessness that arises in ignorance And when we understand, it is spiritual deliverance
It is a homesickness coming from our drifting away As we struggle through the bits of our day-to-day We take on the callousness of barren theology As we edge out God into the abyss of base spirituality
Like driftwood lost, decaying on a sandy beach We call for the water, but it remains out of reach The wonder of it all is just how very odd It is that some try to find a part of God away from God
It's true, you know, that like the worst dancer That we find our pride eats away like spiritual cancer It's the sort of a thing that costs us everything Edging God out and leaving us in our empty nothing
The wisest know that without God, we are truly lost In our quest for righteous perfection is the cost We remain the most righteous in keeping connection Obtaining God's desires by living in His direction
Giving the right thing is found in learning to refrain Our rewards come pouring in when we lean against the grain Or, as it turns out, it is exactly that which we cave to That we soon become the worse kind of malnourished slave to
How, then, do we best learn to live and to remain It is a constant struggle to remember and retain The best of life is through learning right application Of those things which come to us in our Godly relations
Because of this, we must constantly strive and retrain And in doing so and keeping in condition that we remain We do this by carrying God's Word in hearts ever forward This then is the righteous path of God moving ever toward
By allowing God to remove all of sin's crimson stain It is the last step of learning to faithfully remain Within the grace needed that sufficiently places Us all, in the best of God's love, it is our love God embraces
(c) December 6, 2022 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
“The less government we have the better — the fewer laws and the less confided power. The antidote to this abuse of formal government is the influence of private character, the growth of the individual.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Individualism not collectivism is the guiding force of civilization and the best dominant culture for society to generally be governed. It fosters the dignity and accountability by which humanity best flourishes and grows in stature.
“There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual.” – Thomas Jefferson (1785)
This equally applies to women who lie too. It is one of the greatest banes to humanity as it is truth alone that we all should steadily pursue.
The angelic chorus became distortion Even mountains felt small in proportion Still the choir sang songs giving evil warning That Jesus Christ was born that blessed morning
Joy to the world came with this first Noel Here came the gifted blessing in this tale to tell These are the tidings worthy of preservation As this encounter with holiness spreads the nation
Even in our darkest of bleak midwinter days We keep hope alive in our of the old-fashioned ways Death's stronghold hold us all close to the grave But the Lord's grace holds the power to save
Thought sometimes it seems life takes a dive From beginning to end , it's hope that keeps us alive Lifting our eyes to all the best declared authority We will not lose sight as this song magnifies
And the light shines the path to our final victory Yours is the one name for all of eternity Having defeated our sins, God deserves our praise His salvation will reign to the end of our days
(c) December 4, 2022 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
“If, then, the control of the people over the organs of their government be the measure of its republicanism, and I confess I know no other measure, it must be agreed that our governments have much less of republicanism than ought to have been expected; in other words, that the people have less regular control over their agents, than their rights and their interests require.” –Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Taylor, 1816
“The state represents violence in a concentrated and organized form. The individual has a soul, but as the state is a soulless machine, it can never be weaned from violence to which it owes its very existence.” – Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)
In a Finnish wood Where life is understood To be a magical thing There were songs to sing And laughter filled the air The night washed away care As we looked on the beauty There amidst the trees
A different music filled the air With a beat that did ensnare As strangers we began to dance Some of headed toward romance Others as if in some sort of trance Through smoke from the fire We asked what it was that did inspire
An artist to paint these scenes As if seen from our own wild dreams Filled with colors that on canvas popped While the mead poured and never stopped This then was our moment’s celebration Greeted this day with new born fascination The artist never answered as to the why But instead danced satisfied with a sigh
(c) December 3, 2022 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
“The question is whether or not you choose to disturb the world around you, or if you choose to let it go on as if you had never arrived.” – Ann Patchett, writer (b. 2 Dec 1963)
“Without Freedom of Thought there can be no such thing as Wisdom; and no such thing as Public Liberty, without Freedom of Speech.” – Benjamin Franklin (1722)
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
