...befriended

Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy works and defend thee;

Surely his goodness and mercy here daily attend thee.

Ponder anew what the Almighty can do,

If with his love he befriend thee.

---Joachim Neander, 1680, tr. Catherine Winkworth, 1863

This particular hymn text astounds me. Penned in 1680 (the translation made in 1868), this text deals with the nature of God’s power. What is amazing to me is the intimate nature of the relationship the writer envisions between the powerful God of the universe and everyday people like us (h/t to Sly and the Family Stone). I know I shouldn’t, but I tend to think of intimacy with God as a contemporary thought; this text brings me up short. This familiarity, this friendship, is nothing evolved with our relational thinking; this has been a part of the way many before you and me have experienced God’s care for God’s beloved. I am asked to ponder anew what friendship with God can mean to regular folk like me.

What does it mean to be friends with God? How does this new identity affect the way I view my worth, my potential, my value? And how would being God’s friend change the way I walk this earth, the way I relate to the rest of humanity? How would being God’s friend make me a more compassionate, more understanding, more tender friend to you? What kind of effect does that kind of friendship have?

With friends like that…would we have enemies?

...isn't it rich?

As we worship, grant us vision, till Your love’s revealing light

in its height and depth and greatness dawns upon our quickened sight,

making known the needs and burdens Your compassion bids us bear,

stirring us to tireless striving, Your abundant life to share.

---Albert F. Bayly, 1961

“Abundant life” is an attractive concept to believers. Definitions for abundant include “in plentiful supply, ample; abounding with; rich.” The picture I have in mind is of a life so rich and full that it is overflowing. Just as there are many mental images of abundance, there are many interpretations of what Jesus really meant when he promised an abundant life. As I study this hymn text, I find a new favorite.

This text suggests that the abundant life Christ lives, and beckons us to, is abundant in service. Out of the abundant life we have “in plentiful supply”, we can reach out to salve the hurts of an aching world. And, just perhaps, a fully abundant life cannot be lived separate from serving others out of the riches of grace and mercy showered on us by God. No one can live an abundant life outside the sphere of serving a hurting world.

Isn’t it rich?

...less by sight

Teach me your way, O Lord, teach me your way!

Your guiding grace afford, teach me your way!

Help me to walk aright, more by faith, less by sight;

lead me with heavenly light, teach me your way.

---B. Mansell Ramsey, 1919

More by faith, less by sight. Is there anything we humans like less than not seeing? Whether it is a fear of the dark, the panic of a blindfold, or the frustration of low vision or driving through a pounding rainstorm, not seeing can leave us feeling helpless, and hopeless. Yet in scripture we are instructed to ‘walk by faith and not by sight.’ Could anything take us out of our comfort zone faster?

How might our lives change if we walked less by sight and more by faith? Would our decision-making process change? What judgments might we forgo, or at least suspend?  Would we experience others’ needs and problems in a different light? Would our dependence on God make us weak…or would it make us strong?