Hymns Offer Words To Live By
As I have mentioned before, I love singing all the stanzas of church hymns. If you leave out a stanza, you miss part of the message or story being told by the writer. I hope you worship in a church that honors all the words of hymns written to honor and glorify God, as well as to get us thinking about the depth or shallowness of our faith.
One of my favorite hymns is “Here I am Lord.” This wonderful hymn was written by Daniel Schutte. If you have never heard this hymn, find a hymn book with this hymn in it and read the words. It is inspiring, challenging, and humbling.
I love it because it was sung at my ordination service many years ago. As it was being sang, I could not help but think about all I had gone through in order to get to that particular point in my life and to know that I only made it that far because of God.
Another one of my favorite hymns is “We Are the Church” by Richard K. Avery and Donald Marsh. This hymn does a wonderful job of reminding me what a church really should be. The hymn helps me stay centered towards the true meaning and purpose of a church in a community. This particular hymn has always encouraged me when I have become disillusioned with the church at different points and times of my spiritual journey.
As I write this article, the folks of Georgia’s 6th Congressional district are 36 hours from making a vote for one of two candidates to represent them in Congress. This is a historical election because of the amount of money which has been spent on electing one of these two people to office.
To say that I am a little disillusioned would be an understatement. How can we change this so that an election is based on something other than the almighty dollar and who has the most of these dollars?
Furthermore, why not get rid of the major parties in our country and let everyone run as independents?
Maybe, just maybe, this would do away with the energy spent demonizing each other at the expense of getting the real work for the people of this great nation done in a timely matter and in a fiscally responsible manner.
Many years ago, one of my professors alluded to the fact that the next war in our nation would be between the rich and the poor. I wonder how many politicians live a better life than most of us in Jasper County, Georgia?
If I could attach music to this particular election, it would not be a hymn, but a song about the devil making his way down to Georgia.
May all politicians everywhere pick up a Bible and a hymnal and remember that what they are called to do is to help everyone have a better life.
We only get to live this life once and what we do with it determines our life in eternity.