“Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”

11/8/09…Sometimes we need reminders that we are not the only one. Today I received one of those reminders. It was from Robert Robinson, an 18th century hymn writer who composed “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” He penned the words at age 22 in 1757. I have sung this song probably hundreds of times but today I finally understood one of the stanzas in the song.

O to grace how great a debtor

daily I'm constrained to be!

Let thy goodness, like a fetter,

bind my wandering heart to thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

prone to leave the God I love;

here's my heart, O take and seal it,

seal it for thy courts above.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. What an amazing two lines of sheer honesty and depth of anguish and openness. I marvel at his courage to bare his soul and admit what we all feel at some point in our walk, at least those of us who are not showing any pretense. And this is much more. My Christian brother says he feels it. He feels the pain of loving God so much and yet at times wanting to give up because it is so hard. He is pleading for God to save Him from himself or at least this is how I am interpreting it. I wonder if I am right.

The words come at a time that I need to know that I am not the only one prone to wander and feeling the shame of wanting to leave the God I love. This morning in nature God showed me a prism. Later, I went to church with a still doubting heart but nevertheless I went to worship Him. I must say it is the first time in a long three months that I have went with a heart hoping to worship. And today I come across these words written 252 years ago and I realize…I am not the only one.