Highways, Hymns, and Him...

While most folks’ kiddos are listening to the Jonas Brothers (whom I personally adore), The Bug and the Pea prefer John Denver. Also great. Love me some John Denver. But EVERY single time we’re in the car is becoming a bit much as we head into the second year of our adoration. The other day, the Pea pondered, “Mama, Daddy must be a ‘country boy’ because he’s got himself ‘a fine wife’ too, huh?” (Love that child.)
The other day I purchased a new CD. Which is not something I do often. (Let’s just say that I’m still playing Amy Grant cassettes in my 1998 Nissan’s tape player). The newly purchased album includes 30 different contemporary Christian artists singing hymns... a bit jazzed up. And I have fallen head over heels in love with it. I’ve always loved hymns, playing them on the piano (well, hunting for the keys and playing slowly), singing to the girls as lullabies, listening to the stories behind the songs, what the lyricists were personally experiencing when they wrote the haunting words.
I was changing the sheets on our bed Saturday morning, and Take My Life, and Let It Be (Frances R. Havergal 1836-1879) was playing in the background. It’s a fine song, but I’ve never been particularly partial to it. But I gotta tell ya, as I was singing along, the phrases came alive in a way I had never known. In my minds eye the words were written as if a sparkler was tracing the letters in front of me. And they were burning on to my heart in a new way, each phrase a confirmation of things I had experienced/felt/wondered about the week before. “Take my hands and let them move at the IMPULSE of Thy love…” “Take my MOMENTS and my DAYS, Let them flow in CEASELESS praise…” “Take my will and make it Thine, It shall be NO LONGER MINE…” “Take my heart it is THINE OWN, It shall be Thy royal THRONE…” Had never taken too much time to think about the word ‘consecrated.’ But of course! Holy, sacred, sanctified, hallowed, set apart, blessed, revered. (As the villain Gru says in Despicable Me: “Light bulb”!)
I’ve also been struck recently that this journey is not a sprinting process. Much to my chagrin, as I’ve mentioned I’m a “let’s get everything done yesterday!” kind of gal. Let’s just say the word WALK and DAILY appear a lot in the scripture and in hymns. You never hear a verse instructing you to “construct your own plans and then make them happen immediately and then ask God to bless them because you’ve already taken care of everything in your own way…”
I’m learning that it’s a ‘little bit at a time’ kind of instruction. Follow in His leading each moment and then the next instructions will be revealed for the next moment. We have to be dependent on Him DAILY which is why we need to WALK with Him, FOLLOW Him. Two hymns immediately come to mind as I’m pondering this ‘little bit at a time’ direction.
“When we WALK with the Lord, in the LIGHT of His Word, what a glory He sheds on our way!” Trust and Obey (John H. Sammis 1846-1919)
“ALL to Jesus I surrender, ALL to Him I freely give; I will ever love and trust Him, In His presence DAILY live.” I Surrender All (Judson W. Van DeVenter 1855-1939)
I’ve heard an example given of a car traveling down the road on a foggy night. And I must say, I was traveling one evening from Lexington to Owensboro in fog so deep I could barely see my hand in front of my face. I was driving only a few miles per hour as visibility was zero. The car would inch forward and the headlights would only provide enough guidance to see a foot ahead. So I would inch along that foot, and then the lights would reveal the next foot, and I would inch along. I couldn’t see what was ½ mile down the road, I could only see what I absolutely needed to see at that very moment to move forward on the path I needed to travel, without running off the road into a ditch. I had to go slowly, follow the light, a little bit at a time, to stay on the road. Which is a practical metaphor for how I need to trust in the Light (Jesus) as He reveals to me the next few moments of the Road (His Plan for Me) I need to follow in order to reach the intended destination (My Purpose, My Part in His Perfect Plan, My Role in His Glorification).
Or, in the immortal words of John Denver, “Country Road, Take Me Home, To The Place, I Belong…”