Archive for the ‘Love’ Tag
It is not measured
by gifts great or small,
or acts of kindness
expressed one day alone,
but by chosing to live
a selfless life, with a heart
that does not seek
to take what he deserves not,
but to give back what another need’s;
it is that which God call’s love.
_______________
Joyce E. Johnson (2018)
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrong. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” I Corinthians 13:4-7 NIV This is called the ‘Love chapter’ by many bible scholars. I love this scripture passage as it teaches us how to love unselfishly, the kind that gives back, not expects to receive, a good lesson in life. JEJ
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The news last Friday of the passing of Harper Lee, author and winner of the Pulitzer Prize award for her bestselling novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, and her more recent, Go Set a Watchman was perhaps the spark that ignited the controversial civil rights movement. Her characters, Atticus Finch, his daughter, Scout and son, Jem became embroiled in the lives and events of their friends and neighbors. The fact that they lived in a town in Alabama’s south where their neighbors included both white and black people put them in difficult positions, while taking sides to defend that which they felt the need to preserve and protect; tolerance, equality and fairness, whatever one’s race or color, leaving an imprint on their lives from that day forward.
The subject matter she wrote about in her novels dealing with issues of race discrimination became nothing less than a volatile time bomb erupting during the civil rights era with the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., cutting short his realization of the ‘dream’ of equality for all, and his own fight to protect and preserve the same.
Today again, we see the rise of conflict, and a feverish animosity of hatred and intolerance whatever one’s color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or lifestyle. It is like the beginnings to a crescendo pitch of the civil rights era all over again with demonstrations, shootings and mistrust in a country that was founded on the principles of equality for all.
I was a teenager during the civil rights era and remember well the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and found myself on both sides of the conflict. I had friends who were black, but I also felt the fear of rape and victimization of those of color whom I felt I could not trust with good reason as I was stalked and followed home from work one night fearing I could not get home in time. We also lived close to black neighborhoods. Later, the aftermath and rape of one I knew, and having been a witness to the crime left me bitter, and fearful, living across the street from where it was committed.
But, it is the hate instilled in one’s heart, whether or not they inflict harm, or worse, death on one they stalk, or target that becomes an even worse crime.
February is designated as a month when Love is encouraged, emphasized and sold by the millions in advertised products and displays. But, need it be just one month, or one day only that we show kindness, love, fairness, equality, tolerance to those who are not only different from us in color or style? Can we truly choose to love one, regardless of who they are? Does it need be only the ‘dream’ of one man of color who lived his life in peace, and demonstrated it, so that love and equality could be realized in this world, not merely dreamed?
1 Corinthians, chapter 13 is known as the ‘Love chapter.’ It says in chapter 13:4-8 (NIV), “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude; it is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” And, finally, in verse, 13, it says, “And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
I choose to love.
_____________
Joyce E. Johnson © 2016
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Like hues reflecting back
splashed across the sky
the earth rebounds,
and color returns.
We stand in awe
at your greatness, mystified.
How majestic your kingdom;
how great your love,
that you give us a rainbow
in exchange for our sorrow
for the storms now passed
to comfort the broken,
hurting, and grieving;
their hearts open, and seeking
in worship and in praise.
You offer up grace
and hope for tomorrow.
Poem by: Joyce E. Johnson – July, 2012
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THE DUEL
Poem by: Joyce E. Johnson © 2009
A blushing face under a bonnet one day
Stopped my heart and roving eyes that May.
With swishing skirt she coyly walked,
Her voice, a soft whisper when she talked.
Could she have known? Did she see?
Could she tell from my look how she affected me?
She was like sweet nectar on a flower to be
Planted beneath the old withered tree.
Some will say that love is blind,
That eyes cannot see what the heart doth find;
A moment of pleasure, a moment in time,
No word spoken and no thought of mind.
Like a love that is destined from the start
Like a bud in bloom from out of the heart.
Pledging her love that day to me
We embraced beneath the old withered tree.
But there came another. Bold was he
intent on stealing my sweetheart from me.
“Too experienced in love,” they say,
he charmed his way to her heart that May.
His reputation followed. Stories told
of “a man who broke hearts, was callous and cold.”
I hoped she’d come back and want only me
to be married beneath the old withered tree.
Her hair in the wind, her face from the sun
trying to protect me, she started to run.
Wanting to shield me, she came to cover
my body from the bullet, the one from her lover.
She fell silent to the ground alongside me
her skirt turning red against my knee.
I carried her back to the spot where we
once sat beneath the old withered tree.
Yes, I was in love, and I was the fool
to challenge her lover to a duel:
the man who stole from me is now gone.
My remorse and regret adds more upon
my guilt and the sound of the wind like a song
singing a sad refrain of what I did wrong:
it plays a eulogy for my sweetheart where she
lies buried beneath the old withered tree.
***************
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