Streams of Mercy

Saturday’s Presbytery meeting was the first that felt a little like “old times”, after several years of ZOOM meetings for the most part. While fewer folks gathered in person, the worship was special, the fellowship heart-warming and the meeting accomplished its purpose. The “invitation” to the meeting was unique: “Come to Worship, and Stay for the Meeting.” The Message in Word and Song was “Sing Anyway!”

During worship, we sang new words to familiar hymn tunes and we shared the Lord’s Supper. Handbells and a special choir gathered for service blessed us all. After a fellowship luncheon, also music-filled, we gathered again to tend to business. At lunch we found a hymn at each place, and the hymn at my place was “Here I Am, Lord,” a wonderful hymn we learned the year I graduated from seminary, so it was very special to me.

In “Sing Anyway!” we were reminded that in every season of life there is a song to sing. I began reflecting on my journey of life and faith and remember “All the Way My Savior Leads Me” as one of my “journey” songs:

All the way my Savior leads me; what have I to ask beside?

Can I doubt His tender mercy, who thro’ life has been my Guide?

Heavenly peace, divinest comfort, here by faith in Him to dwell!

For I know, whate’er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well;

For I know, whate’er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well.

“O Jesus I Have Promised” was sung from the heart my first Sunday as a seminary student:

O Jesus, I have promised, to serve Thee to the end.

Be thou forever near me, my Master and my Friend.

I shall not fear the battle, if thou art by my side,

Nor wander from the pathway, if Thou wilt be my guide.

“Great is Thy Faithfulness” has encouraged me all along my journey of life and faith – a song to be sung in every season of life:

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning, new mercies I see.

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided,

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.

“My Life Flows On” was sung after the message, and has special meaning for me. In a former congregation, the choir director suffered a ruptured aneurism and I visited with him as he lay unresponsive in an intensive care unit and sang this to him:

My life goes on in endless song

Above earth´s lamentations,

I hear the real, though far-off hymn

That hails a new creation.

No storm can shake my inmost calm,

While to that rock I´m clinging.

Since love is lord of heaven and earth

How can I keep from singing?

Hymn of Promise” has encouraged me again and again when facing losses along the way:

In the bulb there is a flower, in the seed an apple tree.

In cocoons a hidden promise, butterflies will soon be free.

In the cold and snow of winter, there’s a spring that waits to be,

unrevealed until its season, something God, alone can see.

All along our journeys of life and faith, whatever a season brings, we can find a song to sing! We can “sing anyway!”

Elizabeth