“Inspire my thought, O lofty One, to reach the highest plane.”

Hymn: “Make Room within My Heart, O God” – Bryan Jeffery Leech (1931-     )
Tunes: Various – FOREST GREEN

As far as I can find information, Bryan Jeffery Leech is still alive – so we have a living hymnwriter among us today! He was one of those British poetic voices that helped turn the corner on text-writing for worship songs in the 1960’s and 70’s, using a more natural flow of language to convey pertinent, up-to-date issues. For those of us who still write hymns, he is one of our heroes.

Today’s hymnline is taken from one of his prayer-hymns… a personal prayer (using I, me, my). When I sing this hymn or read this text, I am requesting inspiration from the loftiest of all Inspirers; the terminus of this request is to move up in my spiritual walk… step by step as in climbing a mountain. Many of us grew up singing the gospel song “Higher Ground” which has a similar intention.

When I was convincing my parents that I wanted to go to a seminary halfway across the country from east Tennessee, my sixth-grade-educated father wasn’t initially supportive. “Why would you want to get more education? You’re doing fine in your church job.” I will never forget my reply – where it came from, I don’t know: “I am not the best that I can be at what I do.” I remember the look on his face as he nodded and told me to go for it.

There are times when we are inspired to improve… to move up… to better ourselves… to try to reach our highest potential. This hymnline reminds us to continually do that.

Here is the line in context:
    Inspire my thought, O lofty One, to reach the highest plane,
    That I may know the mind of Christ, and him as greatest gain.

We don’t wear phylacteries on our foreheads any more (thankfully), but if we did, this would be a pretty good hymn text to insert and be reminded of all day long, every day. For this day, wear this hymnline inside your forehead… and make it a worthy goal. With George and Weezy Jefferson, you might find yourself “movin’ on up.”