Tag Archives: focus

savory sweet

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van-gogh-flowers

van gogh

Stream winds so pure and clear
lovely path throughout the year

Where from does this rivulet meander?
And how does it avoid harsh arid slander?

I beg to know this stream of life
Endless source to ease my strife

 As a tear you shall always go
Upon the mountain’s cheek so slow

You are not of this world lovely stream
Not from yarn, legend, or even a dream

You are a divine droplet making its way
Winding downward without fear nor sway

Water replenishes me in graceful rebirth
With purposeful joy o’er saddened earth

For continuous and ready are your reserves
Gathering salt of which the soil preserves

This salt shalt ne’er have flavor lost
Just as endless stream flows from redeemed one’s cost

Preserve and replenish, these two shalt meet
The endless stream, savory sweet

(c) 2016-2017 rickjstassi

in passages

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“Valery-sur-Somme” Artist: Degas

there are passages we traipse through
where lessons are learned
even in impossible darkness
interrupted by a lucid glimmer of hope.

a page is turned in a book of life
with trials passing by lying on my back
on green leas with you
and cloudless days with endless azure.

looking through a glass darkly
here i know change leads to clarity and
in clarity is the face of God where
I shall see myself as He has always seen me.
How romantic are words of Life
akin with warm spring sun
on my skin.

O love how you bind when
compassion holds sway
and harmonic measures with
melody flawless in times precious
Our hands are clasped in this.

The sound of a stream pouring
busily overs smooth rocks
emitting cool mist and a lullaby
of gentle sounds from which within
many voices can be deciphered
declaring all of cherished
voices and remembered songs.

I miss times of old
I hope to replay some of them
in reflective memory
and to dream of things to come.

tears of joy are the elixir
from tepid days in apathy
forgotten now in passages
to a new life now and forever.

(c) rick stassi

yesterday

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Paul Gauguin

Paul Gauguin

absent in this moment
for tomorrow is borrowing me
for a brief visit
to live out
a contrived dream sequence
where current reality
is replaced by a false
insecurity – or security
and I willingly go
because the current moment wasn’t
all that interesting anyway…

I find as
these lapses
into tomorrow
build upon one other
so that a minute
becomes the hour that
keeps me up so very late
at night when
the entanglement between
sleep and worry
battle fiercely
in fighting fields
created simply by
my inability to
stay present in this moment…

so focus,
I must, on this time
that shall fly away ever so fast
and take me now into tomorrow
which is unlike anything I
ever dreamed or worried about,
yesterday

(c) 2014 rick stassi

Our Genuine Faith, most precious….

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6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials,
7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
8 whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,
9 receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:6-9

Our salvation to be revealed is our sustaining strength, love and joy from God. We may stumble. We may grieve, but we move ever onward toward the Celestial City across the river. The Celestial City is heaven and the river is Jesus who is our Way to heaven. Our various trials are trivialized by the enormity of the promise of salvation. We should not be held captive in any downturn! Our actions and our thoughts that hold us in regress from His way can and will float by unnoticed if we do not let them hold us hostage. Hold dear the things of the Lord that greatly surpass the various downturns in our life. Be cautioned not to trivialize the downturns of others as we can serve as a reminder to them of the greater things to be revealed. Your focus and the manifestation of  God in your life will help others who are still struggling to find a foothold. Help others and O we rejoice!

Gold is precious, even refined by the fire that burns away impurities. The refining part is a great picture of God’s work in us. We are refined daily in His work in us. The impurities of our hearts melt away. Hold on to that picture and hang it on the wall of your heart. However, as precious as gold may be, if we leave the refining metaphor, gold is a precious material that fades away. It is in the genuineness of our faith that surpasses the precious nature of gold. Our faith in is He who is coming, He who is not seen, He who now abides in us. The triune of God.

Receive Him in your life. Be genuine as you sit and ponder the various trials that seem to collect. Ponder and release. They are but obstacles that start to block the clear-path to a one-on-one connection with God. A connection where you can see Him. You look into the eyes of eternity. Your perspective is of a revelation of salvation from Calvary to the place where you now stand. Embrace the totality of His grace.  We are at the receiving end by design, by choice, by our Father whose Name is Hallowed in heaven.  Consecrate us Father.

Believe you will overcome, rest in the things eternal. Do not let even the most precious hold you captive for God wants our fullness of heart. He wants the fullness of our focus. He wants us to know Him, ask Him, speak with Him.

For His power is Divine, His glory eternal, and we rest at His feet washing the feet of the saints in His service because our faith is genuine. Our genuine faith is most precious.

Rick Stassi

1/10/11