“More than all, the heart must bear the largest part.”

Hymn: “Let All the World in Every Corner Sing” (George Herbert 1593-1633)
Various Tunes

Are you ever confused when what your head tells you is at odds with the tugging of your heart? This is bad enough in everyday decision-making, but it is amplified when, as a serious follower of Christ, your head-knowledge and your heart-feelings collide.

I’m weighing a philosophy or a trend. I want to be able to take a stand (at least internally) and come to a conclusion in which I find peace. I may struggle with this dilemma for a long, long time as I weigh the two options – like an old-timey scale. One minute I lean to the right; the next I lean to the left. I am NOT drawing some conservative-liberal picture here, so don’t even go there.

When that happens, where do you usually land? With your head or with your heart? Think about that for a minute, then rejoin me here.

I know a lot of facts about God and the Bible. I’ve been in Sunday school since before I was born. I majored in Biblical studies in college and have a seminary degree. Underneath all that, I have learned the nature of God, especially as it is demonstrated and modeled through Christ. Because of that, I think this hymnline speaks for me: when I can’t reconcile the two, my heart goes with what I understand to be the nature of God – the loving, kind, forgiving, grace-filled, understanding, accepting, inclusive, faithful attributes that seem to ride above and beneath all the “factoids” I’ve picked up along the way and on which many not-so-wise decisions have been made by churches and denominations over the years… and sometimes by me.

More than all the knowledge contained in my head, the love of Christ in my heart has to rule… has to carry the largest, hardest part.

How about you?


Ralph Vaughn Williams’ setting of this text

“Then shall my latest breath whisper thy praise.”

Hymn: “More Love to Thee, O Christ” – Elizabeth Prentiss (1818-1878)
Tune: MORE LOVE TO THEE

The refrain of this hymn is a wonderful commitment: “This all my prayer shall be: More love, O Christ, to thee.” All the stanzas are headed toward the intention of increasing our love allowance in the direction of the Almighty.

In the context of the hymn, the word “latest” probably means “last.” But it occurred to me once while singing this wonderful hymn that it could mean my “most recent” breath. In other words, when elevating my love levels throughout my days, I might look back at my last breath… my last moment… and realize it had been praise-filled though unspoken aloud.

Yeah, you’re right: I’m probably over analyzing this one, but it is a great goal, isn’t it? To be so saturated with love for my Redeemer that I praise him without even knowing it until I look back at the prior moment and hear myself having whispered a word of commendation of the One who is the object of my heart’s affection.

We do this with our human love-ties, you know. All of a sudden we realize we were just thinking about a loved-one, and in that fleeting parcel of time, we rejoiced… we were heart-warmed.

I’ve said before that my daily hymn-prayer is “Draw me nearer, blessed Lord.” I could easily add “More love, O Christ, to thee” to my daily music mantra!

By the way, sometimes, whispered praise is the best kind.


Fernando Ortega Sings This Hymn

“Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope.”

Hymn: “I Am Thine, O Lord” – Fanny Crosby (1820-1915)
Tune: I AM THINE

“Why so downcast, O my soul?” asks the Psalmist. (42:5) In the lives of biblical heroes like Elijah and Jonah, we find them in this moping stage. This state-of-being is not something new.

In today’s culture, most people seem to walk looking down; have you noticed that? The heads-up, confident gait is rare. Even when not texting, folks seem to be more concerned with their immediate path than where they are headed. I admit that after a couple of falls, tripping over an un-level paver in the sidewalk is not something any of us look forward to!

The question we have to ask ourselves is whether or not our inner-selves… our souls… are downcast? Are we concentrating on the problems that might arise? Are we afraid we might trip up? Are we already up to our knees – or necks – in difficulty?

In almost every hymn by Fanny Crosby, the blind poet throws in a “seeing” analogy. This use of “look” is the one she uses here.

Like the hymn “My Faith Looks Up to Thee,” this phrase calls us to “turn (y)our eyes upon Jesus” with a great sense of hope – to return to a more confident faith-walk, no longer watching our feet, but looking ahead for the “footprints of Jesus that make the pathway glow,” believing that they will never lead us where we should not go.

The line appropriately completes itself like this: “Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope, and my will be lost in thine.”

Chin down? Chin up? Soul down? Soul up? These are reasonable questions to ask as we walk through life. Like in most things, the up-side seems preferable, don’t you think?

Listen to a Celtic Setting of This Hymn.

“We test our lives by thine.”

“We test our lives by thine.”

Hymn: “Immortal Love, Forever Full” – John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)
Common Tune: SERENITY

When growing up in Pigeon Forge, there was a place at the top of the stairs leading down into our basement where my mother would occasionally stand me up against the wall, level a ruler on top of my head, and make a mark. Beside that mark, she wrote the date. I was an only child, so I don’t know why “Ronald George” was written above all these tick marks. I guess she never measured herself or daddy.

Interestingly as I recall, this was always done at my request – not on my birthday or New Year’s Day. Whenever I thought I had grown a little, I would ask to be measured.

The house is still there on Forest Avenue. I wonder if those vertical evaluations are still in that stair well?

In this six-word phrase from a poem by a great American poet icon, we remind ourselves to stop measuring ourselves against other humans and to rather use the example of the Lord and Master of us all.

Seems like every gift I have falls into some artistic category. Throughout my entire educational and professional career I caught myself saying, “I wish I could sing like him,” or “I wish I could draw as well as she does,” or “If I could act like that other guy, I would have the lead,” and so on. I never seemed to measure up. In my personal evaluations, I was a little good at doing a lot of things, but great at nothing.

The truth is that I have way too often applied the same testing process to my spiritual life, wishing I had the prayer-life of another – or the patience, the wisdom, the understanding of scripture, the moral fortitude; I even wondered why I didn’t have as much faith as my mentors – those I looked up to.

When I come across this final sentence of Whittier’s hymn-text, I want to slap myself for making such comparisons. I should be testing my own life by the benchmarks set up by the One I really look up to: my Savior Example. As with my childhood requests, perhaps I need to ask for a measurement of my spiritual growth.

Judgmental of the spiritual lives of others? Guilty. This hymnline also reminds me that I am not the judge of my fellow strugglers in the faith. I need to get my nose out of their business, stop mouthing off, and set my eyes on Christ. (That’s three facial metaphors by the way!) In all those years that Hedy measured the growth of her only son, she never asked any of my friends to come stand there and see how they measured up to my progress; she only measured me against myself.

Today, focus on how YOU measure up. Stand against the proverbial wall and let your heavenly Parent tick off your progress, regardless of how the kid down the street is progressing!

This text to another tune
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqZft2qtS6Q

“Mighty grace o’er sin abounding.”

Hymn: “’This the Church Triumphant Singing” – John Kent (1766-1843)
Commonly Used Tune: AR HYD Y NOS

This second line of the third stanza is about as embedded in a hymn as one can be! All those churches that skip the third stanza have missed a great quote, as have congregations who yawn their way through four-stanza hymns.

This happens to be the week after the gunman killed nine African American worshipers (including the pastor) at Emanuel AME church in Charleston, S.C. According to all accounts at this point, the racism-motivated young man sat through almost an hour of their mid-week Bible study and prayer meeting before he opened fire, announcing that he had no choice – it had to be done. It was a situation of abundant evil… sin was abounding.

Amazingly, there have been no riots or looting in that great southern city. The associate pastors have led their congregants to act like Jesus who in his dying called for forgiveness for those who sat through his teachings, overheard his prayers, and yet seemed to have no choice in doing what had to be done. In every newscast I’ve seen, the members of that church have spoken words of forgiveness for the one who invaded their safe space and took the lives of their friends and family members. It is a situation of abundant good… mighty grace is abounding.

It is as if Mighty Grace swoops in singing, “Here I come to save the day!” The powers of evil still cannot prevail against a rightly-founded church… local or universal. In much smaller doses, this same Almighty Grace is at work ridding the world of evil… even in the small corner of my world and yours.

Words from Desmond Tutu’s prayer book have been adapted into a contemporary hymn that says this:
    Goodness is stronger than evil.
    Love is stronger than hate.
    Light is stronger than darkness.
    Life is stronger than death.
    Victory is ours through him who loved us.

I set out every day to look at everything through the eyes of grace… not judgement or prejudice or retaliation. I do that because I am confident that there continues to be mighty grace o’er sin abounding. So why not stand on the winning side of that tug of war?


A much-too-slow (in my opinion) setting of this hymn
but the only one I could find online!