Hymns

I used to play the piano. I took lessons for years; I can read all the notes, I'm just very rusty and not very musical about it. On Monday, I was sitting in the empty camp dining hall finishing my dinner when I decided to pick up the hymnal from the coffee table by the fireplace (no idea why it was there to begin with), take it to the piano, and pluck out some hymns. I played through a good number of them, but I got stuck on "What a Friend We Have in Jesus". When I was in 6th grade, I played that hymn on the trumpet (cornet, really) in a church in Mexico and severely butchered it. Regardless of emotional scarring, the hymn has a message that I don't often reflect on.

What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge, take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do your friends despise, forsake you? Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He’ll take and shield you; you will find a solace there.

Blessed Savior, Thou hast promised Thou wilt all our burdens bear
May we ever, Lord, be bringing all to Thee in earnest prayer.
Soon in glory bright unclouded there will be no need for prayer
Rapture, praise and endless worship will be our sweet portion there.

My friend Ryan's church organized today as a day of prayer and fasting for Ryan and Kendra. Throughout the day, I found myself feeling like my actions were ineffective in the face of Ryan's cancer. How is my compassion supposed to affect change? As Desmond Tutu writes in Made for Goodness, "compassion, which literally means 'suffering with,' may feel like the most futile kind of suffering. It changes nothing. It holds no hope of changing anything." But, Tutu goes on to write what I need to realize, that compassion brings us in proximity to the Father. And, as the hymn says, "Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer."

I have so little control over my life (less control than I think I have), and essentially no control over the lives of others, yet God remains both infinitely powerful AND my friend. Hopefully, as my understanding of those truths deepens, my prayers will become less circumstantial and self-centered and instead begin to echo God's heart for the world.


"Blessed Savior, Thou hast promised Thou wilt all our burdens bear
May we ever, Lord, be bringing all to Thee in earnest prayer."