Here is a poem by Lori showing much depth of thought.
Wanted all of you to see this.
 

Brief Visit
(Psalm 39; II Corinthians 5; John 14)

I had just settled in
with my tea and scones,
hot and barely buttered.
Mortality did not bother to knock,
Just opened the door
and barged in.
"Have a spot of tea", I asked?
Sparing of words, very sparing, he was.
"Get ready"--
that's all he said.

"Ready for what?"
But it was time to go.
I learned that I was the visitor when
I'd thought I was the host.
All the clocks and watches stopped
and unfinished lists fluttered to the floor,
It was suddenly cold and drafty,
And I realized it was too brief a visit:

although minutes sometimes dragged,
the days stampeded,
and decades vanished like clouds in the desert.
Am I ready?

Ready?
There is no time to pack,
and no room for luggage, anyway.
I've finished camping,
no more tents of flesh;
it's time to go home.
Will it feel like home, right away?
Will I get along with the rest of my family?
What if they don't like me?
Do they have to like me?
Do I have to like them?

Wrong questions.
I just can't shake this visitor's mindset.
I'm going home.
But it is so hard to let go.
Beginnings and endings are both so difficult.

His visit was brief as well--with heart-rending farewells.
But He's gone ahead and made me a room--
I wonder why I'll need a room?
I get the feeling that I have wasted too much of this visit.
Have I done all I was supposed to?
Have I learned anything at all?
I learned that I was not the one in the center,
not the one in control--
 He is.

I learned how to accept a gift
when I'd rather earn my own way.
Self-reliance won't get me far,
but God-reliance will take me all the way
to my new home.

I don't like change much.
My besetting sins are worry and fear.

Mortality is growing impatient.
I set down my cup,
half-sipped,
and my scone,
half-tasted.
Just one visit,
one brief visit.
It is goodbye, then.
It is hello, then--and welcome!
 
lori fiechter
4-25-05

James 4:14 and Psalm 90:9

www.parlorcity.com/lori and at http://www.onlyinternet.net/lori/
http://www.cybertime.net/~ajgood/ark2.html