New Every Day

Fit me for the battle, Lord,
Each morn anew, when I arise
To things around me, good and bad,
Give me to see, Lord, ope' my eyes.

Dulled by sleep and night's dark shades,
My spirit cannot pray aright
'Til Thou dost quicken with Thy breath
And bring anew Thy love and light.

My spirit is so cold and dull,
It lacks the impulses to move
It needs to feel Thy touch of fire,
It needs to know that Thou art love.

Like the sun, which every morn
Doth run the race, it's course doth take,
So may I rise and look above
My soul to fill, my thirst to slake.

Some spice, some balm, some precious word
Give to me as to make my way
From this dull lowland where I dwell
To heights above, new every day.

Fields Of Diamonds

I am like a man who walks in fields of diamonds and cares for nothing more than his clothes, his house, his bread. With riches all around me, I continue blindly, pursing stones and pebbles while diamonds turn to dust. The blessings of the Lord are mine at every moment, his love, his life, his law, and I have but to look. I have but to stop and eat this living bread, I have but to drink from this life-giving stream.

And so I look to Jesus, the fairest of ten thousand, and find there all I need and more than I can hold. His riches far exceed all of this world's empty treasures, his wonders far surpass all I ever had before. His beauty is unmeasured and his grace knows of no limits, his love is like a fountain ever flowing without end, a vast uncharted ocean and I am in its center, my life caught up in his, and I am whole again.

The Open Sea

Set sail, my heart, upon the open sea,
Redeeming love's vast immensity.
Strike the sails and weigh the anchor fast;
The unknown way calls out and beckons thee.

There is a call from deep to deep today,
It stirs my blood and calls me on this way.
Though seas shall roll and skies be overcast
We'll undertake this journey come what may.

Fear not for dangers that may there be found
For we have heard love's joyful, swelling sound
Of peace and joy and love and light to last;
We'll go where such as these are to be found.

The Book shall be our compass and our guide,
The Spirit fill our sails upon the tide.
Our sail is faith, love becomes the mast;
Our rigging, hope, to cross the ocean wide.

THE CHRIST OF EVERY WAY

I get so immersed in the holidays that when they're over it's a shock to my system. This little piece came out of that experience this year.

THE CHRIST OF EVERY WAY
When Christmas was all put away …

When the decorations were returned once again to their place in the attic and the Christmas cookies had all been eaten, when the tree was sitting out at the curb waiting for the trash man, leaving a trail of tinsel down the driveway, when the presents were no longer sitting on the living room coffee table but had found homes in dressers, closets and shelves, when the Christmas Carol CD’s were back in their cases and returned to their places next to Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennet, Brahms, Beethoven and Mozart, when January 2 dawned cold and rainy and the family all had to go back to school and work …

That’s when I heard Jesus say
“I am the Christ for every day,
I am the Christ of every way.”

Not just for times and seasons gay …

Not just for the special days and seasons when we sense the wonder of His incarnation, the impact of His crucifixion, and the power of His resurrection; not just for the times that come already marked on our calendars, not just for occasions at church deserving choirs and cantatas and costumed plays, not just for those recurring occasions that stir our memories of childhood and times past …

If we listen we can hear Him say
“I am the Christ for every day,
I am the Christ of every way.”

He is there for those very ordinary days …

For those days for which nothing is written on our calendars, for those days when we wake up with a headache and get through our routines by sheer force of will, for those days that are as bland as dry toast and flat as pancakes, for those days of rushing to the emergency room with our heart in our throat, for those days when failure and frustration hang over our heads like a black cloud …


That’s when we can hear Him say
“I am the Christ for every day,
I am the Christ of every way.”

Not just for Bethlehem but for Nazareth as well.

Not just for the Mount of Transfiguration, but for the valley of the shadow.

Not just for the empty tomb, but for the empty heart …

He is the Christ for every day,
He is the Christ of every way.

The Magi's Gifts

What strange gifts for a little child.
Would he not rather have a top, a toy,
That he could play with as a boy?
Why bring these gifts through regions wild?

What stirred within their hearts to bring
Such presents for a peasant's babe?
What sentiments were there portrayed?
Or were they off'rings to a king?

What meaneth this strange gift of myrrh
Which does not celebrate his birth,
But puts the value and the worth
On his dying, as it were?

And why this gift of frankincense?
'Tis used in worship of our God.
And yet this babe on common sod
Is worthy such extravagance.

For gold depicts divinity, indeed;
And so the wise men, not beguiled,
Knew that Jesus, Holy Child,
Was Christ the Son, the Royal Seed.

O Jesus, Jesus, stir my heart
To bring thee gifts of precious worth
As frankincense and gold and myrrh
That I might know Thee as Thou art.