Be Still, My Soul

We sang the hymn, Be Still, My Soul, this evening in church and I was once again reminded of how much I love it. I'll share it here with you:

"Be still, my soul; the Lord is on thy side;
Bear patiently the cross of grief and pain;
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul; thy best, thy heavenly, Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul; thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul; the waves and winds will know
His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul, though dearest friends depart
And all is darkened in the vale of tears;
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe thy sorrows and thy fears.
Be still my soul, thy Jesus can repay
From His own fulness all He takes away.

Be still, my soul; the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul; when chance and tears are past,
All safe and blessed we shall meet at last."

Be Still, My Soul, was written by Katharine von Schlegel (1697- c.1768) and translated into English by Jane L. Borthwick (1813-1897). The music was composed by Jean Sibelius, from his music 'Finlandia'. The scripture reference for this hymn is found in Psalm 46:10: "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!" (NKJV).

To give you a better taste of this hymn's beautiful tune, here's a YouTube clip of it being sung by Libera (Children's choir):

"The church is something beautiful" by Francis Shaeffer

“One cannot explain the explosive power of the early church apart from the fact that they practiced two things simultaneously: the orthodoxy of doctrine and orthodoxy of community in the midst of the visible church, a community which the world could see.

By the grace of God, therefore, the church must be known simultaneously for its purity of doctrine and the reality of its community. Our churches have so often been only preaching points with very little emphasis on community. But the exhibition of the love of God in practice is beautiful and must be there.

We have, then, two sets of parallel couplets: (1) the principle of the purity of the visible church, and yet the practice of observable love among all true Christians; and (2) the practice of orthodoxy of doctrine and observable orthodoxy of community in the visible church.

The heart of these sets of principles is to show forth the love of God and the holiness of God simultaneously. If we show either of these without the other, we exhibit not the character, but a caricature of God for the world to see.

If we stress the love of God without the holiness of God, it turns out only to be compromise. But if we stress the holiness of God without the love of God, we practice something that is hard and lacks beauty. And it is important to show forth beauty before a lost world and a lost generation.

All too often people have not been wrong in saying that the church is ugly. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are called upon to show a watching world and to our own young people that the church is something beautiful.

Several years ago I wrestled with the question of what was wrong with much of the church that stood for purity. I came to the conclusion that in the flesh we can stress purity without love or we can stress the love of God without purity, but that in the flesh we cannot stress both simultaneously.

In order to exhibit both simultaneously, we must look moment by moment to the work of Christ, to the work of the Holy Spirit. Spirituality begins to have real meaning in our moment-by-moment lives as we begin to exhibit simultaneously the holiness of God and the love of God.”

- Francis Schaeffer, "The Church Before the Watching World" in The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century in The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview, Volume Four, A Christian View of the Church (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1982), 152.

20 Years

In only two and a half weeks, I'm turning 20 years old. That seems so unbelievable. My teen years have been some of the best of my life, and I have some amazing memories from the past twenty years of my life. As I pass into my third decade of life, here are 20 things I have done so far that come to mind:

Sang in a gospel choir. Built a house for a family of five. Ate a monkey. Graduated from high school. Became 1/4 of a nurse. Lived in Peru. Been so high in the Andes that there was no oxygen. Danced in front of thousands of people (and won gold more than once). Ate pasta in Rome and pain au chocolat in Paris. Fallen in love. Floated down the Amazon in a river boat. Had the Promised Land take my breathe away. Celebrated Easter in Mexico. Performed in a play. Explored the wild west coast islands. Became a sister. Learned to ride a horse. Raised thousands of dollars for Darfur. Been a camp counsellor for some beautiful young ladies. Received Christ as my Savior.

That's just one tiny glimpse of the things I have done. There's so much more! And such an incredible amount more to come. I am so excited. It's cliche... but life is a gift.

Easter Meditation

Charles Spurgeon wrote two centuries ago about the man who was forced by Roman soldiers to help a weak and bleeding Jesus to carry the cross (Mark 15:20-22). He was only enduring a momentary burden. Simon's experience is like the rest of us - thanks to Jesus, our burdens truly are only light and momentary afflictions. Have a blessed Easter weekend.

When Simon was forced to carry the cross for Christ, all he did was haul some wood. Christ carried infinitely more.

[Simon] carried only the wood of [the cross], he did not bear the sin that made it such a load. Christ did but transfer to Simon the outward frame, the mere tree. But the curse of the tree, which was our sin and its punishment, rested on Jesus’ shoulders still. Dear friend, if you think that you suffer all that a Christian can suffer, if all God’s billows roll over you, yet remember, there is not one drop of wrath in all your sea of sorrow. Jesus took the wrath. Jesus carried the sin.” — Charles Spurgeon

A Rather Blustery Day

I love days like today - blustery days. It has to be one of the best types of weather... I wouldn't call in windy.... I associate 'windy' with 'cold', but today isn't cold! It's warm... although the wind can make it seem cold.

I'm sitting inside writing a paper (the longest I've ever written, actually) with a cup of tea and the heater set to a tropical 80 degrees. I'm snug as a bug in a rug, you could say. And I'm watching the wind play in the trees outside, buffeting them to and fro, and making that delightful whooshing sounds that only a fierce wind in tree tops can make. Those long-awaited spring flowers who had finally dared to poke their delicate heads above ground are taking a beating. They just weren't cautious enough, I suppose. The birds had all started coming out from spring as well, flitting about the backyard and chattering madly... but not today. Today they are all huddled down together somewhere warm and sheltered, waiting for the winds coming up off the Pacific to pass.

But not me! It can stay as long as it likes, as far as I'm concerned. Somehow the fact that the weather outside is less than ideal, makes my being warm and comfy inside that much more enjoyable. And the wind astonishes me! Some of those gusts are worrisomely powerful. They come so suddenly, and I actually fear for the trees - they are bent so tremendously from side to side... it's amazing how they can endure such violence.

But did you know it makes them stronger? It does! The bending back and forth of the tree's trunk forces it to adapt and grow to be stronger the next time. It's even possible to see the stress lines in the rings of a tree... it's very fibers.

The same is true with human bones... I learned that last semester. The more exercise you get, or the more stress and pressure you exert on your bones, the more tough and durable the become!

Perhaps the same is true with believers. James 1 famously states: "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trails, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing."

It makes me wonder... if trees could talk, would they tell us they are thankful for the wind?

In honor of this blustery day, I present you all with this YouTube clip. I will forever associate the word 'blustery' with my old friend Winnie The Pooh... enjoy!