"Take my heart it is thine own; it shall be they royal throne!"
This verse is taken from the beautiful hymn, "Take My Life." In my younger years I tore out this hymn and pasted to the front of a journal. The journal has sat in a box of journals that I have started but never finished. For one of my Lenten practices I decided to venture into the memory box and find a journal to record my forty day journey with Jesus.
As I read the hymn yesterday morning at a silent service I saw in the simple words where Christ was calling me this lent. Four Ash Wednesdays ago this pasted hymn was a plead for God to use me and take my life as I entered into life at Duke Divinity School. Yet, today, more than any other time in my 26 years of living I feel like God does have a hold on my daily life. "Toma mi tiempo, es para ti" (Take my time, its for you!), are the words of a song we sing in our Spanish service. More than ever I know that when I sing this song God takes me up on my request and finds the most creative ways to take my time for God's purposes (like trying to figure out how to fit 300 mozzarella balls from the USDA for our food pantry into a fridge and freezer).
Yesterday, Ash Wednesday, the stanza that pierced my soul were the words, "Take my heart, it is thine own; it shall be thy royal throne." My heart. Who has my heart? In what subject is my heart focused each day? Is my heart the place where Christ the King comes to sit? Is my heart Christ's throne? I don't think I have come to Ash Wednesday heartless or cold, but I did come with different desires and foci that have become first in my heart and mind. My prayer for this lent is that not only in actions, words, time, sermons, and reading, but also in heart I may be united with Christ. I pray that in every lifting of a case of rice or a package of peaches that my heart my rejoice in Christ. I pray that I may bow down before Christ each morning as my dad does and give Christ my heart once again to be Christ home.
May we all be brought closer to the heart of God these forty days!
No comments:
Post a Comment