www.servingjesuspoetry.com
  • Author's Testimony & Introduction--FAQS
    • Table of Contents
  • 1 His Kingdom to Prepare
  • 2 My Choice Companions
  • 3 Companions
  • 4 Companions II
  • 5 A Mother's MTC Farewell
  • 6 Who Will Dare for Christ
  • 7 To a Chosen Generation
  • 8. I Feel Such a Strangeness
  • 9. Not Me
  • 10. My Brother's Father
  • 11. Not Far Away
  • 12. Questions for Our Leaders
  • 13. Questions From Our Leaders
  • 14. The Visit
  • 15. Show and Tell
  • 16. Within Our Slumber We Will Dream
  • 17. Servants in the Shadows
  • 18. Joya Escojida/Chosen Jewel
  • 19. Las Aguas Del Senor/The Waters of the Lord
  • 20. Come Fasting to the Meeting House
  • 21. As Voices Join in Sacred Sabbath Worship
  • 22. A Child's Baptismal Day
  • 23. In Temple White
  • 24. Temple Hill
  • 25. This Precious Day
  • 26. The Translators
  • 27. I Your Husband Who Have Fallen [First Poem of The Repentance Trilogy.]
  • 28. The Wife's Song
  • 29. Remember Not Past Years
  • 30. A Priesthood Lullaby
  • 31. The Season of Our Need
  • 32. Cherished Daughter, Valiant Servant
  • 33. Daughter, Hear and Heed Your Savior's Voice
  • 34. Bird Mom
  • 35. Eric's Song
  • 36. A Wedding Song of Praise
  • 37. Testimonies to My Daughters
  • 38. Prayer for a Caring Granddaughter
  • 39. Firstborn Son and Firstborn Daughter
  • 40. Father's Day
  • 41 The Hospital
  • 42. The Children of the World
  • 43. For the Healers of the World
  • 44. Simple Heroes of Our Day
  • 45. To This World So Prone to Peril
  • 46. Somewhere
  • 47. Servant of Servants
  • 48. We Wish That You Were Here
  • 49. The Teacher
  • 50. To Protect Marriage and Family
  • 51. Earth's Unborn Children Weeping
  • 52. Prayers for the Peacekeepers
  • 53. That Patriot Dreams Will Come to Pass
  • 54. We Would Do It All Again
  • 55. So Much More
  • 56. Passage and Pilot
  • 57. Because of the Son
  • 58. Growing Up
  • 59. The Olive Leaf
  • 60. Until All Are One With Him
  • 61. Death Has Not Won, But Lost
  • 62. Call to Arms
  • 63. When All Is Done
  • 64. How Rarely Have I Come This Way
  • 65. At a Place So Very Different
  • 66. My Best Years Lie Ahead
  • 67. Sons of Zion, Jesus Calls You
  • 68. Come, Sing Your Song to Me
  • 69. May It Be Always So
  • 70. Until Safe in Heaven's Embrace
  • 71. Seek the Spirit
  • 72. Undertow
  • 73. If I Am Given Time
  • 74. Sons and Daughters, Heirs of Promise
  • 75. Wrestling for a Call
  • 76. When Everything is Ready
  • 77. One Thousand Times
  • 78. Tearful and Fearful I Prayed Through the Evening
  • 79. Tell Us, How Do Servants and Teachers Like You Come Along?
  • 80. Blessings for Beloved Servants
  • 81. Our Gayla's Free at Last
  • 82. I Am a Witness of Your Worth
  • 83. I'll Live With You Again
  • 84. Brother, Friend, and Fellow Servant
  • 85. Grieve Not for Him
  • 86. Press On From Payson's Hill
  • 87. The Righteous Live in Me
  • 88. Homecoming
  • 89. In Honor of My Friends Unseen
  • 90. [An Invitation] We Call to You
  • 91. Fellow Americans, Let Us Talk
  • 92. Brothers and Sisters, Fulfilled Together
  • 93. What We Have Lost in Our Digital Paradise
  • 94. Running Out of Time
  • 95. Ere You Hear the Sound of Battle
  • 96. 21st Century Gadiantons
  • 97 The Setting Apart
  • 98. What Do You Say?
  • 99. To a Woman of Tempered Steel
  • 100. A Correction Soon Begins
  • 101. The Quiet of the Morning
  • 102. Slippery Slope
  • 103. Stormy--We've Got to Stop Meeting Like This
  • 104. Warriors of the Mind and Soul [Poetic Process Discussion]
  • 105. He Wrote Just as He Lived
  • 106. Life Singer
  • 107. Zion's Daughter Leanore
  • 108. Does Your House of Worship Now Seem Lonely
  • 109. Crucify the "Old Man of Sin"
  • 110. We Loved Them Once
  • 111. Winter's Mothers God Holds Most Dear
  • 112. Lord, Please Forgive Us Anew
  • 113. Patriot's Faith Will Triumph Yet
  • 114. Indexing
  • 115. I Am Liberty
  • 116. The Beauty
  • 117. To Aid the Innocents Abused
  • 118. A Noble Bugler Has Returned
  • 119. The Music of the Lord
  • 120. Frog Cat
  • 121. God's Storms
  • 122. The Daughters of the Lord
  • 123. Come Back, Before Our Souls for Error Yearn
  • 124. Don't Tell Me That My Time Has Come
  • 125. From the Dust [Comes The Book of Mormon]
  • 126 To See the Sun Again
  • 127. Mourning America
  • 128. For Baby Adam
  • 129. Despedida Ansiosa/Anxious Farewell
  • 130. Between the Lines
  • 131. Will You Ever Ask the Questions
  • 132. The Days I Spent With You
  • 133. For Nelda
  • 134. The Covenant Path
  • 135. Heartland Dream
  • 136 We Sent Our Very Best
  • 137. Sisters of the Covenant, Daughters of God
  • 138 Sisters Share Their Cheerful Hearts
  • 139 God Looketh On the Heart
  • 140 What of Me?
  • 141 The Return
  • 142 Latter-day Defenders
  • 143. "Come and See, Come and Help, Come and Share"
  • 144. The Best of Father's Seed I've Known
  • 145. [Complete, but pending.]
  • 146. When the Days of Wait Are Over
  • 147. Red Kettles and Silver Bells
  • 148. Victory
  • 149. He Lacks Not Faith
  • 150. "Am I a Friend of Jesus?" [Spring 2020 Semi-Final Examination]
  • 151. Christ is Our Refuge Once Again
  • 152. Until We Kneel at Our Savior's Feet
  • 153. Where You Stand, You Should Still Lift
  • 154. No Day Shall Pass nor Night Shall Fall
  • 155. We Pray for You
  • 156. Bountiful Harvest
  • 157. A Message of Peace and Love
  • 158. Israel, Israel God Shall Save Thee
  • 159. For Those Who Wait
  • 160. Friends Who Intercede
  • 161. Young Women's "Frog Camp"

124.   Don't Tell Me That My Time Has Come


The Trigger:

Enjoying an afternoon in the garden with our cat, I imagined that, somewhere in this world, there was an elderly woman, stricken with cancer, who was delighting in the beauty of the day.  [I will quickly concede that, at times, I have an excessively active imagination.] 

She was very frail, with wisps of hair left from her grievous illness, and the treatments she endured for the same.  Her thin skin was marked at placed with dark patches where IVs had been repeatedly administered.  She was enjoying what some warned her might be the last Spring day of her life.  She was dying.  But the perfection of the moment, and the joy that mortality provided caused her to exclaim, "Don't tell me that my time has come."  That exact phrase was the trigger for the subsequent verses.

124. "Don't Tell Me That My Time Has Come"

The sun shines brightly through the leaves,
My favorite tree a haven here.
Sweet smells of Spring now scent the breeze,
That passes through my fading hair
Birds frolic, gaily, all around,
And neighbors’ bells sound tinkling charms
My old grey cat patrols our grounds,
Assuring I will face no harm.

Don’t tell me that my time has come.

                            
Through Winter’s storms I kept my faith,
Assured that all things harsh would pass.
So I endured with hope kept safe,
That every trial I’d outlast.
Was I mistaken to believe
That I had seasons yet to live?
Did force of will serve to deceive?
Have I so little left to give?

Don’t tell me that my time has come.
 
Through decades I have “fought the fight”,
To raise a family with God’s love.
Through every trial I found Light
And Grace and Guidance from above.
And even when my dearest friend,
And help meet left me all alone.
I did not let my caring end
For those entrusted to my home.

Don’t tell me that my time has come.


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The Message:

To return to our imaginary friend, I perceived not merely sorrow at her anticipated passing but also some resentment.  “How could this be?”  Had she not overcome innumerable travails and griefs of every kind?  Had she not remained valiant despite outrageous tests of faith—each one seemingly more unwelcome than the last, and coming in a never ending stream?  Her body bore the marks of her pain and her endurance.  [In this regard, some of the “free verse” of No. 99, “To A Woman of Tempered Steel” comes to mind.]  Given this admirably lengthy history of persistence for the right, those watching might wonder if it would not be more just, more appropriate for a Gracious God to grant the sufferer immortality.  Such a desire would be well-intentioned error--for we are all meant to die, and in dying, pass into the Post-Mortal World in preparation for resurrection, and, if we are worthy, the glory of Eternal Life.

And so, were I present in that Spring afternoon with our cancer victim, I might feel compelled to say, “Dear Sister, we must acknowledge that God’s perfect love cannot serve to deny us death.  Yes, your time is, indeed, fast approaching.  And that is not merely a necessary thing, it is a good thing.”   A willingness to return to the Heavenly Presence, despite our flaws and fears, is a consummate test of faith.  We know there is a life after death.  What we fear is that it will bring us face to face with all of our mortal weaknesses and errors.  To not merely accept but to embrace death is a final mortal act of trust in the atonement of the Lord God and the grace of our Heavenly Father based on that atonement.  Let us recall Jesus' own promise to all, given to us of the current dispensation.


Doctrine and Covenants 45:1-4


1 Hearken, O ye people of my church, to whom the kingdom has been given; hearken ye and give ear to him who laid the foundation of the earth, who made the heavens and all the hosts thereof, and by whom all things were made which live, and move, and have a being.
2 And again I say, hearken unto my voice, lest death shall overtake you; in an hour when ye think not the summer shall be past, and the harvest ended, and your souls not saved.
3 Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him--
4 Saying: Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified;
5 Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life.

END NOTE:

This imaginary sister should not fear the promises made by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Despite the temporary terrors of mortality, death is but a portal to the glorious infinity which is the inheritance of the faithful.  Like the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 15:5-55):
"So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"