SHATTERED DREAMS

Broken, crushed and torn apart
Phantom dreams and empty heart
Feeling cursed and full of shame
Life seems like a losing game.

Pressures mount on every side
Looking for some place to hide
Work and family torn apart
Hardly knowing where to start.

Corporate ladder to success
Seeking fame and happiness
Finding nothing at the crest
Just an empty heart at best.

There's one thing I long to find
For a deeply troubled mind
Can God take a shattered past
Fill a purpose that will last?

Jesus Christ is what we need
He will guide and He will lead
Bringing burdens to the Cross
Will replace all of our loss.
B. Pent

JOY VS. HAPPINESS

JOY met HAPPINESS one day
Along the rock-strewn path of life
The answer they both sought to find
Was how to gain real peace of mind.

Each one was given time to choose
Through trials that would test their faith
The daily strength that JOY embraced
Was trusting God's unfailing grace!

But verdant fields drew HAPPINESS
Where earthly toys and pleasures lay
The search for gain and earthly store
Became the quest for wanting more.

 But time began to test the soul
And pressures forced the heart to choose   
Between a life of trust and faith
Or seek one's joy another place.

JOY early learned to trust God's Word
Whose promise He would always keep
If heaven's kingdom became first
He then would quench all earthly thirst!

By chance they met another day.
The searching heart of HAPPINESS
Expressed a need to find a way
To fill that void that leads astray.

God's simple plan was then revealed
For earthly things that weigh the soul.
JOY fills the vacuum of each heart
When Christ becomes the central part.
--B. Pent

TO SING AGAIN

The winter's chill seems here to stay

The sound of joy has taken flight

The sun that once shown bright and clear

Has given way to shades of night.

The wounds are deep that pierce the soul

The cooing of the Dove is gone

The empty space that once was filled

No longer hears the blue bird's song.

How can one find the road back home

Where music calls the heart to dance?

When will the birds begin to sing

So Spring is not a game of chance?

The summer rays that warm the soul

Are Spirit borne on wings of praise

Just trust the One Whose promise stands

His music will renew your days.

--B. Pent

ARE YOU RUNNING ON EMPTY?

It was 9:30pm Sunday night, July 3rd! We left Colorado with all our kids, gear and a tank full of gas. I wanted to reach Lincoln, NE. early enough to have breakfast before continuing our trip to St. Paul, MN. where we would spend the night before heading to our vacation home in the UP.

Since Ogallala to Lincoln is a long, boring drive, surrounded by fields on either side, traveling at night while the kids are asleep, seemed the most logical. There is something nostalgic and almost surreal, listening to classical music while driving during the wee hours of the morning.

My full enjoyment of the trip was quickly interrupted sometime after 4am when the amber light on the dash reminded me that I was low on fuel. I didn't panic at first because gas stations have plenty and one couldn't be that far away! Or so I thought! But this was July 4th and between 4 and 5am most places were closed. What could I do if I ran out of gas? The longer I waited and the longer I drove without a gas station in sight, the more tense I became.

I prayed! Confession, panic, fear and pleading became my mantra! I needed a miracle! When the amber light showed that I was below empty, I got off the highway and followed a gravel road running parallel to it. By this time everyone in the car was awake; even the fumes from the tank couldn't carry us any further! I was flat out of gas! The car came to a complete stop near a crossroad.

A half mile away, I could see a farmhouse with a light on! I prayed I could get just a gallon of gas. From the lighted second floor window the farmer poked his head out asking what I wanted. I explained my predicament and with deep humility pled for a gallon or two of gas. When he came down to meet me, he said "follow me." He walked me to his garage, opened a large sliding door, and in wonderment I gazed at a Standard Oil Truck. He said, "I service all the surrounding gas stations." He backed up the truck, told me to hop in, and drove to where my car sat. Instead of a gallon or two of gas, he filled it up to the brim and before long we were happily on our way praising God for what He had done.

I've often reflected on that experience! At times I feel empty spiritually looking for just a gallon or two of God's blessing, when suddenly He calls out and says, "follow Me!" Then He opens the windows of heaven and in obedience to the command to "be filled with the Spirit" (Eph.5:18), He says: "whoever believes in me, streams of living water will flow from within him" (John 7:38) He wants to give us more than a gallon or two of blessing! He longs to fill us to the brim! Let this be our constant prayer: "This the secret of the holy, not our holiness but Him. Jesus! empty us and fill us, with Thy fullness to the brim."

MY EMPTY HEART

Why does my heart seem so empty
Even when life looks so good?
Why does the mist in my spirit
Garner control of my mood?

Is it perchance I am searching
For phantoms just out of my reach
For something to fill up a longing
That no one in this life can breach?

The pot at the end of my rainbow
Seems always to vanish away
Each time that I reach for a nugget
I find nothing coming my way.

Then a small voice seems to whisper
Like the sound of a morning dove
"Nothing compares with the offer
Of God's indescribable love."

So next time my heart starts to hunger
For something to fill up that space,
I'll always remember His offer
To give me His fullness and grace.
--B. Pent