For this year’s Lenten Guide, each member of the Council staff chose a verse from a favorite hymn to write about. We will post their reflections throughout Lent, for Ash Wednesday, each Sunday and throughout Holy Week.
Spirit of Life, come unto me.
Sing in my heart all the stirrings of compassion.
Blow in the wind, rise in the sea;
Move in the hand, giving life the shape of justice.
Roots hold me close; wings set me free;
Spirit of Life, come to me, come to me.
“Spirit of Life” — Singing the Living Tradition #123
This hymn speaks to our quest for a reaffirmation of our faith as we continue on our Lenten journey. We ask with devotion for the Spirit to guide us through each movement, for our faith to hold us with strength.
We look to God with confession that while we know we are not perfect we offer our discipleship through our beliefs, as though we are seeds that have been scattered in the wind with a confidence that we will be planted where we will best bloom.
This hymn recognizes that we must make the ask in order to be received. We are bound by our own darkness and fear until we request the Spirit to encompass our aloneness. God has offered us all of Creation, making it just and free to those who ask to see.
As we search for balance in motion, grace in the elements, we are humbled to realize that we are, too, filled with the same spirit of life of God’s magnificent Creation. Rather than limiting our faith to an intellectual understanding, we come to recognize that we must put our faith into action and live out our moral framework. Through all the turbulence of injustice, we transition with the “trust and confidence” of a true believer.
May it be so!
A great reflection, as we reach the mid-way point of Lent.