This is My Story, This is My Song

Most Christians have their favorite hymns.  Growing up in church most people are introduced to the great hymns of the faith as children; even when they are too young to understand what they are singing about.  For years as a child, I thought the classic hymn, Amazing Grace, was a song about my great Aunt Grace that lived with my grandparents.  It just made sense.  Yet, over time, these great songs of faith do begin to make sense.  Not only that, but the lyrics also have a way of shaping the very faith we believe.  In fact, a good part of a person’s Christian theology is not learned from a weekly sermon, but from the repetitive singing of hymns.  One of my favorite actors, who was also a singer, Andy Griffith said it this way, “Hymns are companions for life travelers.”

In my office is a poster I designed that is simply a list of favorite lines from hymns that are special to me:

                          O though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.                                                                             This is My Father’s World

                  Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, It is well with my soul.                                                                           It is Well, With My Soul

               Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer, than all the angels heaven can boast.                                                               Fairest Lord Jesus

Perhaps one of my favorite lines is from Fanny Crosby’s Blessed Assurance which says, “Filled with his goodness, lost in his love,”  Could there be a more blessed state that to be filled with God’s goodness and lost in God’s love?  To be filled with God’s goodness means that life finds its meaning not in the offerings of the world, but in the gift of God’s grace that fills us completely, while worldly promises leave us hungry for more.  To be lost in God’s love means that regardless of where we are in life, even when we don’t know where we are, we are still surrounded by God’s love.  Hence, both our inner lives and our outer living are sustained by God.  God’s goodness and God’s love become the theme for our lives.  This is our story, this is our song.

So, let us keep singing even when life’s journey is uncertain.  For one thing is certain, “This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.  This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.