.....since last Sunday. Sorry to be so busy that I'm only posting it now!
He who would valiant be ’gainst all disaster,
Let him in constancy follow the Master.
There’s no discouragement shall make him once relent
His first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.
Who so beset him round with dismal stories
Do but themselves confound—his strength the more is.
No foes shall stay his might; though he with giants fight,
He will make good his right to be a pilgrim.
Since, Lord, Thou dost defend us with Thy Spirit,
We know we at the end, shall life inherit.
Then fancies flee away! I’ll fear not what men say,
I’ll labor night and day to be a pilgrim.
We sing it at SMV to Monks Gate, though I have also sung it to St. Dunstans. Go to www.cyberhymnal.org if you don't know the tune.
I think the hymn is appropriate for our times--when it appears that we are truly fighting against the giants of the culture, politics, and all things secular. It is hard not to despair. Hard not to give up the fight and run away. I certainly want to. I'm only too like Frodo, telling Gandalf that I wish I had not been born in these times.
But God knows more than me, and He has a reason for me to be here, in this place, in this time, with the meager gifts I have. So, I guess I'll just keep plugging along, as constant to Christ as I can be (which is often not so very constant), in the hopes that my little life and voice makes a difference somewhere.
It's hard, when we don't see how or where or why. But we don't have to see those. We only have to see Christ.
I am making a desperate prayer request. My dearest friend's father (56) has been recently diagnosed with colon and lung cancer with tumors in his liver. Upon x-ray the lung cancer looks like snowflakes. This is beyond any surgical help. His name is Pete.
My favorite, "Once to Every Man and Nation," sung to the tune "Ebenezer," and written by James R. Lowell in protest of the American war with Mexico in 1845, is another wonderful hymn about hard choices that Christian must, at times, make. It can also be found at cyberhymnal.org.
Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, some great decision, offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever, ’twixt that darkness and that light.
Then to side with truth is noble, when we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and ’tis prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses while the coward stands aside,
Till the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.
By the light of burning martyrs, Christ, Thy bleeding feet we track,
Toiling up new Calv’ries ever with the cross that turns not back;
New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth,
They must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of truth.
Though the cause of evil prosper, yet the truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong;
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.