Would I!?

Some song lyrics are harder to sing than others. Hymns and sacred songs give us language for praise and prayer, but they also serve to inspire, convict, and shape us. An example for me is from a song we are singing this Sunday called “For His Glory and My Good.” The final verse begins: 

Would I gladly be made nothing that Christ would be made more?

Would I seek the only kingdom that far outweighs them all?

Would I? It’s a struggle! It is in our human nature to want to be a “somebody.” I want to be praised and acknowledged for the things I do, not be made nothing. I want to bolster up my small kingdoms such as my bank account, material possessions, and reputation. But there is something freeing about this invitation to cease our own strivings for the sake of Christ and his kingdom. It is truly life giving. As the hymn writer James Proctor encouraged almost two hundred years ago: “Weary, working, burden’d one wherefore toil you so? Cast your deadly “doing” down, down at Jesus’ feet. Stand in him, in him alone gloriously complete.”

Interestingly, the lyrics in “For His Glory and My Good” take us the same direction towards completion in Christ: “I will stand before my Father where the faithful saints have stood and with joy my heart shall praise him.”

What might it look like for you to “Cast your deadly ‘doing’ down”?

God bless you as you walk in his grace and truth this week!

Jill Schroeder-Dorn, D.A., Director of Worship Arts