Submission

The Imitation of Christ
Thomas a Kempis
Book 1, Chapter 9
Of Obedience and Submission

"Fancies about places and change of them have deceived many."

This is not something a city girl who longs for the country wants to read. I'd even rather live in a small town than in the suburbs. Maybe it's all the concrete I see every day. Maybe it's that I can go months without seeing our next door neighbors. Maybe it's all the cars I see. Driven by people I don't know.

Kempis speaks in this chapter about obedience. He admonishes us to obey God out of love, and not mere necessity. And yet, it's sometimes difficult to obey and submit without grumbling under our breath, isn't it?

I was just speaking with a fellow ballet mom this evening about her desire to move to the country. I never knew this about her, and here we both were talking excitedly about our mutual dreams of country life. She wants a little house on the property for her daughter to live in, I want one for my mom to live in. She wants to raise sheep, I want to raise alpacas and lavender.

Traversing the concrete to return home, I recounted my many blessings. I will go outside tomorrow and look for swelling buds on the trees, reminding myself that the color green will come to our yard in a few months. I'll look under the dormant lavender plants for volunteer babies that sprouted undetected last summer, and dream of where I can transplant them come spring.

And then maybe I should make some banana bread and take it over to our neighbors.

Happy Arrival Day!

Twelve years ago this evening, I became a mother of two. Our precious daughter was brought to our arms from a half a world away. Her big brother waited, not too patiently, with pink balloons for her to emerge from the long airplane tunnel.

We brought her home to a room with a crib, a rocking chair, and an antique chest serving as a changing table. Now, she's got Jonas Brothers posters, signed Nutcracker posters, stuffed animals, books, a cd player, a fuscia colored canopy, and floral hair pieces from every ballet recital lined up where a wallpaper border would go.

My how time flies. Seems like only yesterday.

Thank you Lord for your perfect timing. Thank you for your strength. Thank you for graciously letting me ride this trail called motherhood.

(Close up of our daughter's hanbok (traditional dress), one of the few things she arrived with from Korea.)

"O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing"

Charles Wesley (1707 - 1788) wrote over 6,000 hymns. Penned in 1739, this hymn celebrates the first anniversary of Wesley's conversion to Christ.

"O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing"

O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace!

My gracious Master and my God,
Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honors of Thy name.

Jesus! the name that charms our fears,
That bids our sorrows cease;
’Tis music in the sinner’s ears,
’Tis life, and health, and peace.

He breaks the power of canceled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.

Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb,
Your loosened tongues employ;
Ye blind, behold your Savior come,
And leap, ye lame, for joy.

(St. Andrew's Church in Epworth, England, where Samuel Wesley was rector, and where his sons John and Charles Wesley were born.)

"O Worship the King"

The author of this hymn, Robert Grant (1778-1838), was born in India to British parents. Grant attended school in England, became a lawyer, and followed in his father's footsteps to become a member of Parliament. He returned to India to become the Governor of Bombay in 1834. He died while in India, and was buried there as well.

The melody heard here was written by Johann M. Haydn (1737-1806), brother of composer Franz Joseph Haydn. If you go to Sing for Joy's website you can hear a different melody if you listen to the first hymn of the broadcast. It's got a great choir and a pipe organ. Just wonderful!

O Worship the King

O worship the King, all glorious above,
O gratefully sing His power and His love;
Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days,
Pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise.

O tell of His might, O sing of His grace,
Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space,
His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,
And dark is His path on the wings of the storm.

Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,
In Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail;
Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end,
Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend.

O measureless might! Ineffable love!
While angels delight to worship Thee above,
The humbler creation, though feeble their lays,
With true adoration shall all sing Thy praise.

(St. Peter's Cemetery, Salzburg, Austria - burial place of Johann Haydn)

Disappointment.

Struggle. Loss. Failure. Heartache.

Not exactly Top Five Goals for the Christian. Or, are they??

Many churches heard Mark 1:21-28 for this past Sunday's gospel reading. Jesus was teaching "with authority" in the synagogue, which amazed the people. Then, Jesus commanded an evil spirit to come out of a man, "Be quiet! Come out of him!" And the people were even more amazed to witness that sight.

Our pastor reminded us Sunday that God's Word is powerful. We should speak with confidence, for we have the Word that has power and authority to expel evil. Do we really believe that? Do we truly treasure the Word of God?



Our lives won't be perfect if we do believe in God's power. In fact, we'll probably get new problems. Or as Oswald Chambers (above photo) wrote in Monday's My Utmost For His Highest, "This College [Clapham Bible Training College in England] exists...to see whether God grips you. And beware of competitors when God does grip you."

When God grips us, there can be opposition from the enemy. And, yes, the spiritual realm can be a scary thing to think about. But, we have the Word of God. It's in our Bibles. Right there. For the taking.

And the failure? Loss? Struggle? Disappointment? They're temporary.

Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them.
Psalm 111:2

"Thou, Whose Almighty Word"

Most Americans hear the word Marriott, and think of the hotel chain. The author of this week's hymn was Englishman John Marriott (1780-1825). Ed­u­cat­ed at Christ Church, Ox­ford, Marriott was curate of several parishes in England during his life. There are several melodies attached to this text, but I have chosen the one by Italian composer, Felice de Girardini (1716-1796). You may go here to read all four verses and hear the melody.

Thou, Whose Almighty Word

Thou, whose almighty word
chaos and darkness heard,
and took their flight;
hear us, we humbly pray,
and, where the Gospel day
sheds not its glorious ray,
let there be light!

Holy and blessèd Three,
glorious Trinity,
Wisdom, Love, Might;
boundless as ocean's tide,
rolling in fullest pride,
through the world far and wide,
let there be light!