prone to wander

i love some new christian songs, contemporary, they're called.
and i could list some of them and how thier lyrics move me to tears...they do.

and yet, after growing up in a southern baptist church, and returning to the very same one now as an adult, i must admit, the old hymns are what really get me.

last night i was sitting beside my daddy, looking up at my sister (and others) leading in "come thou font of every blessing." i love that song, but some of the old hymns words are like the reading the king james version of the bible to me. too complicated initially, too much, require thought...

but when you do listen to them, think on them. oh the truth in them...

the verse that gets me every time is this,

oh to grace

how great a debtor

daily i'm constrained to be

let thy goodness like a fetter

bind my wand'ring heart to thee

prone to wander, Lord, i feel it!

prone to leave the God i love...

here's my heart, oh, take and seal it.

seal it for thy courts above.

i could have written that. easily. i feel like i've spent my life begging God to help me, to help me stay close to Him. (And i've learned that He's given me what I need to stay, I just need to use it. To do it.) "prone to wander, Lord i feel it, prone to leave the God i love!" i do love him and i do still, sometimes, want to wander. i'm amazed after all he has taught me how i still sometimes want to go my own way. sometimes i consider it for a moment and sometimes for days i'll struggle with his lead...

but......there is nothing new under the sun...the writer of this hymn in...(hold on, whilst i google when it was written...) the 18th century was a pastor and hymnist?? Robert Robinson...a pastor? he wanted to run the wrong way in the 18th century, like i do today, in 2011? that is somewhat relieving.

some other old hymns bring me to tears too...

-it is well with my soul: "my sin, not in part, but the whole. is nailed to the cross, and i bear it no more. praise the lord! praise the lord, oh my soul!"

-great is thy faithfulness: "thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not. as thou has been, thou forever wilt be."

-blessed assurance : "Jesus is MINE, oh what a foretaste of glory divine! this is my story, this is my song. praising my saviour all the day long!"


-how great thou art: "and when i think, that God, His son not sparing, sent Him to die, i scarce can take it in. that on that cross, my burden gladly bearing, he bled and died to take away my sin, then sings my soul, my savior god to thee....how great thou art, how great thou art.................."


what hymn gets you everytime?

sing it today.

sing it right now at your computer for Him.

and sing it more often.