Tuesday, December 22, 2009

The Blossom

Those who know me well know that I have a special love for weddings. As a result, I often write wedding songs for no reason. This particular song celebrates the wonder of love founded upon a beautiful friendship. It is my dream to be not just my future husband's lover and helper and homemaker...but also his playmate, his comrade, his friend.

I waited long for something
The world said I would find,
I waited for enchantment,
By love that'd make me blind,
Yet as I learned to trust Him,
I tenderly uncovered
How in His perfect timing
I'd joyously discover...

That the blossom bloomed from friendship
Blooms the brightest of them all,
And the love that led from laughter
Laughs through every tear and fall;
Arm in arm, towards, tomorrow,
Guided by His hand alone,
Timeless love, through joy or sorrow,
Will be ours till years unknown.

Sunday, September 06, 2009

Every Line of Poetry

If ever I did write...it was only by the grace of our Savior. And as I soon return to an academic environment, I am determined to still walk closely with our Lord, to let Him hold my heart and my hands, and by His leading, to continue writing His wonders and truths. Lord Jesus, I love You.

Oh Lord, I know so well in me

That every line of poetry
That I could ever write
Is written by Your precious grace
Upon each titter and each trace,
And by Your strength and might.

And every time that I draw near
And learn to keep You close and dear,
You make my hand to write
So many words of wondrous truth
To aide, to guide, to cheer, to soothe,
And to uphold the right.

And yet whenever I divert
And do what in Your heart would hurt
Or pain You in Your sight,
You answer silence to my plea
And take these words away from me
So that I cease to write.

Oh Lord, please let it never be
That I would wander aimlessly
And turn to my own plight;
But let my pen be Yours to use
To give Your praises all their dues,
And to uphold Your light.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

If I Could Sing

Sometimes...the beauty of a song is not in its craftsmanship, but in the memories of how it is written. This is one of those "spontaneous" pieces of praise that simply came out over some ice cream and laughter. Sometimes...these pieces are lost soon after they're written. But lucky for me, this simple chorus has remained a part of me =)

If I could sing, I would sing You a new song,
If I could sing, I would sing all day long;
If I could sing, I would sing to every day,
If I could sing, I would praise You all the way.
For in You, we have love,
For in You, we have peace.
If I could sing, I would sing You a new song,
If I could sing, I would sing all day long.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Love in PCC is...

This is a little fun piece inspired by the College Bookstore display back in February. There are two lines here quoted from that board, and I give credit to whoever contributed those. Feel free to add to these with your comments =)

Love in PCC is...

...rushing early to the Crowne Center but still being late to get to your seat for chapel

...thinking that a stopover at Dixon is the closest distance to get from the Crowne Center to Young Tower

...standing in the cold to "meet and say goodbye" to someone at Rawson Chapel

...eating breakfast with your girlfriend at 7:00 a.m. even though you don't have class till third hour

...having a reason to leave a voice mail every single day

...a guy carrying around a lady's pink school bag and actually feeling proud about it

...a girl wearing a guy's suit jacket and actually thinking she looks good

...going to the 2:30 Vespers with your special someone even when you have a 1:00 card

...going on a diet two months before fine arts to fit into that dress that he had liked

...hunting down the halls of the guys' dorm for a tie that matches her dress

...subconsciously starting to walk and open doors backwards

...adjusting your seats in church to have that hymnal right between you

...circling the Campanile from 10:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. on Sunday evenings

Monday, August 03, 2009

Someday

My mom was married at 21. Ever since I was a kid, I thought that I'd be getting married by now. But God had other plans. If I had tried to get married at this age, I wouldn't have gone away to college...and life would just be completely different. God is faithful, good, wise, and true. I post these lyrics, one of my most favorite compositions, on my 21st birthday...knowing that God will continue to guide my heart as another decade of my life unfolds.

This song is somewhat based on author Joshua Harris' last chapter (titled "Someday I'll Have a Love Story to Tell") in his book I Kissed Dating Goodbye. I have personally experienced the amazing impact of godly love stories of people in my life, and I want to be able to do the same one day as well. Someday, someday, Lord willing...I will tell, together with the love of my life, a miraculous story of purity, patience, hope, and faith rewarded.

Verse 1:
I hold my heart within my hand
With dear anxiety,
For I know I won't understand
What His plans are for me;
I'd rather live the way that I
Now think would make me free,
Yet knowing that if I comply,
He knows what's best for me.

I store my dreams within my heart
As I remember you,
For though we may be far apart,
His love can see us through;

And though impatience drives me on,
I know that in His time,
The One who calls us both His own
Will write our tale sublime.

Chorus:
Someday we will tell His loving grace
To a generation who is seeking for His face;
Someday we will tell His wondrous love
In a perfect match made from what dreams are fashioned of...
Someday...

Verse 2:
And many younger souls will see
How in His perfect plans,
He's brought me to you, you to me,
By wondrous circumstance;
And when they see how He has done
His miracle on us,
Then they can find the strength to run
Their race with hope and trust.

So when my heart forgets and fails

To trust His time and grace,
I think of how His will prevails
O'er any human ways;
And I remember how one day
We'll have our tale to tell,
So in our hearts and lives, I pray,
May we portray it well.


Chorus:

Someday we will tell His loving grace
To a generation who is seeking for His face;
Someday we will tell His wondrous love
In a perfect match made from what dreams are fashioned of...
Someday...someday...
Someday.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

His Present

God has blessed me with many very precious gifts in life, in the forms of both people and things. And yet, there is one that tops them all...

Verse:
Sweeter than the roses placed in tender virgin hands,
Richer than inheritance of houses, wealth, and lands,
Dearer than the teardrops shed upon a broken heart,
Is the present I received...

Grander than regalia that royalty display,
Fresher than the blossoms gathered midst the dew of May,
Softer than the teddy bear I hold against my heart,
Is the present I received..

Chorus:
The cross was His present,
Bought by His bleeding hands,
The cross was His covenant
For God and sinful man;
The cross was His gift to me,
Bought by His death and shame--
A present given lovingly...
That I can never be the same.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

The Beauty of a Place

Strolling around a near-empty campus during lockdown week, I realized the incredible amount of memories that have been formed upon those grounds throughout the past 30 years...but is it really the place that matters?

The beauty of a place lies not
Upon its selfish charm,
It lieth rather on the lot
Of human melancholy wrought
Upon that selfsame spot;
One place of sweetest dreams for me
Might be of dread for thee,
'Tis not the place that earns the grace,
'Tis human memory.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Kept For Me

I wrote these lyrics as a personalized wedding gift to my musician friends Mark and Jocelyn. Even though their whole love story won't fit here, I can bear witness of how their lives testify to God's amazing sovereignty in keeping both of them unattached for many years until they met each other and fell magically in love...to be each other's first and last in a world of broken hearts. And whenever I fear that God would let me miss out on what's best, I remember their story, and I find comfort in knowing that God would keep me and my groom for each other, according to His perfect plans.

Verse 1:
There were times I felt there was no one
Who'd know me as I am;
There were times I thought I'd settle for
Whatever was at hand,
Yet somehow God would have me wait
In search for something more,
For in His perfect, sovereign plan,
The best was still in store...

Chorus 1:

And through the years, He's guided me
To where I stand today,
Breathless at what my eyes see,
And robbed of words to say.
And through the years, there was no one,
For looking back, I see
That He was keeping me for you,
And keeping you for me.

Verse 2:
There were times I felt there was no one
Who'd love me as I am,
There were times I thought I'd never find
Someone to understand.
Yet somehow God would lead me through
An unexpected door
That opened to a world of love
I'd never known before...

Chorus 2:

And through the years, He's molded me
To who I am today,
Breathless at what my eyes see,
And robbed of words to say.
And I thank God there was no one,
For looking back, I see
That He was keeping me for you,
And keeping you for me.

Bridge:
The first to see inside of me,
The first to hear "I love you,"
The first to sing within my soul,
Are you...

Coda:

And looking back upon the years,
I sing with ecstasy...
That He's been keeping me for you,
And keeping you for me.


And here is the video that they made out of the song =)

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

A Morning Prayer

I have always been a night owl, and waking up early every day, ready for a day's challenges was difficult for me as I faced college life. Yet God has been my strength; His glory my motivation. On happy days, exhausting days, or painful ones...these were the words that greeted my mornings, and drove me through each day.

In the morning I arise,
Stretching arms and rubbing eyes,
Wondering what course should lie,
On my way today.

In the morning, silently,
As the sunrise creeps on me,
I can't help but question why
I need face the day.

Not for love and not for fame,
Not for praises to my name,
Not for mem'ries passing by
Must I live today.

Christ alone, my heart's desire,
Gains the flame and feeds the fire;
Lord, upon You I rely,
Use me, Lord, today.

Monday, June 29, 2009

To Fear to Lose

I penned this poem this past May, a time when inspiration brought some of my best pieces ever. Not a person in the world, no matter how good-looking or outstanding, is spared from the fear of losing the one he or she loves. Love longs for security and usually never finds enough of it. God gave me this poem because He knew how often I need to hear its message; and I share this poem because I know many others would benefit from it as well. Love not from God is fleeting. True love, when given by God and based on God, can never be lost.

I often wonder why at all
That you would choose to love me so,
I trip, I stumble, and I fall,
I have no faults you do not know,
I am not beauty's prideful claim,
I have not charm's gentility,
My talents, skills are all the same,
If not much less, than what can be.

And with these thoughts within my mind,
I often fear that you would go,
I fear that I would lag behind,
Another's charms, another's flow;
Yet then my heart reminds my fear
That never did you love me so
Because of charms or manners dear,
Or anything that swiftly go;
Our love has friendship as its stand,
A friendship founded on the One
Whose plans we cannot understand,
Whose will, when said, is good as done.

Then why fear I that you would go
To seek what never did draw you?
You love me and I love you so
For who He is, for what He'll do;
And since I never can lose Him,
I know that I cannot lose you.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

More Than a Song

I typed down these lyrics on the breakfast table at my cousin's house almost a year ago. The words were soon set to music by my cousin Theo, although I still haven't heard the whole piece myself. For now, this song is a reminder for me to not merely sing praises with my lips, but to pour out my life for my Lord and my God.

Verse 1:
More than a song, with my life I will worship,
All the day long, with my being I'll sing;
Be it heart, be it soul, be it all that I own,
I will live, I will give You alone.

Chorus:
Praise You, O Lord, I will praise You in the morning,
Praise You, O Lord, I will praise You in the night,
Praise You, O Lord, every moment I am living,
Praise You, O Lord, praise with all my might.

Verse 2:
More than a feeling, with rev'rence I worship,
Humbly I'm kneeling, before You to sing,
Be it now, be it then, be it then and again,
I will raise, I will praise You alone.

Bridge:

Over and over the years,
Giving You all that I am,
Freed from all trembling and fear,
Praising You all that I can...

Monday, June 15, 2009

The Gift

The conversation in this poem was inspired by the tale "The Nightingale and the Rose" by Oscar Wilde, something I read in English literature class. Yet I have also drawn deeply from personal experience for this piece. My first composition in blank verse, this long poem answers a question for all who are patient enough to read and understand it...What is the best gift love can give?

The little boy came to the nightingale
And asked with youthful curiosity,
"Dear love-bird, if I deeply love a girl,
What present can I give to prove my love?
I've never loved a person more before
And want to give what no one else can give."
The nightingale looked on him long and sure,
"That present only truest love can give."

The little boy gazed at the nightingale
And asked with patient, slight uncertainty,
"Dear love-bird, if I want to give to her
What I can never give to someone else,
What present can I give to only her?
What present can I give to prove my love?"
The nightingale looked on him kind and long,
"That present can be given only once."

The little boy sighed at the nightingale
And asked with young frustration in his voice,
"Dear love-bird, will you please tell me today
What present's worth the most in all the earth?
I want to give what money cannot buy
For she is worth far more than jewels are."
The nightingale looked on him sweet and kind,
"This present's worth is irretrievable.

"Dear boy," the bird replied, "this special gift,
This present that you seek to give to her
Is never bought, though often rashly giv'n,
Is never earned, but granted undeserved,
'Tis what no other one can give to her,
'Tis what no other can receive but her,
Its worth is priceless, for there only is
But one in every human life on earth."

The bird continued as the boy, so filled
With love, did strain his youthful ear to hear,
"This gift is truer than fine silvery;
This gift is giving what is part of you.
Her heart can melt when you give it to her,
But you must give with warnings in your ear:
For this dear present, once given away,
Can never be outdone or taken back.

"If you should love her till the end of life,
Then only do you have the right to give;
But if you cannot love her till the end,
Then you should hesitate to grant this gift."
"Oh what's the gift?" the boy would want to know.
"No matter what the cost I'll gladly pay,
No matter what the work I will accept,
For I love her more than I love myself."

"The gift is simple, priceless, and profound,
'Tis given once, yet given not alone,
'Tis given with a record you must bear
No matter what may change in days to come.
The gift you seek is rightly named as--'First'
And it is given with whate'er you choose:
A song, a kiss, a hug, a word or three...
You give it only once eternally."

"Oh that is easy!" the young boy exclaimed.
"Oh no! 'Tis not!" the bird did reprimand,
"For once you give this gift away to one,
No human being can have it again.
You might give greater, better, stronger things,
But 'first' has ownership for one alone.
So please, be wary of what you decide,
For though you've found the gift, please bide the price."

The boy in love looked happy yet confused,
He's found the gift, but many warnings too.
"Oh be not sad," the love-bird sweetly said,
"For love would give what can be given now,
But save for last what's best among them all.
The choice of what to give and what to save,
Is yours to make, with wisdom, love, and sense,
And yours to keep throughout your days ahead."

The young boy hesitated for a while,
Then lifted up his visage with a smile,
"I think I've learned what gift is best of all,
'Tis not a gift of passion or of gold,
'Tis not a gift of words or one of praise,
But 'tis a gift I give once and for all."
And off he skipped to give his special gift,
While silently, the nightingale did muse.

"I hope that this one makes his choices well,
Lest I have one more saddened tale to tell,"
Spoke thus the bird, spoke thus the nightingale.

Monday, June 08, 2009

To This Place

This is a song that came to me when I was doing my devotions in our dorm prayer room several months ago. The more I come to know who I really am, the more I am amazed at the wonder of God's love and grace.

Who am I to stand before Your throne?
Who am I to be among Your own?
Who am I to claim a part when You had rolled the stone?
Who am I to come to You alone?

Who am I to have Your hand in mine?
Who am I to know Your love divine?
Who am I to claim a part and at Your table dine?
Who am I to witness Your design?

Amazing love...amazing grace...
Amazing glory in Your face...
Amazing mercy that would cover my disgrace
And bid me enter to this place.

Saturday, June 06, 2009

想起你 (I Remember You)

Even though the Chinese language may be my mother tongue, it is definitely not my mother pen. Thus, I was so happy when this song flowed effortlessly when I was walking around campus. To those who could actually read these lyrics (hehe), please keep in mind that this is basically a pop song. Don't read it as a wisdom piece, for it is not written to be so. It is just a mushy love song about remembrance and romance. Hey, I get to have silly girly moments too, right?

路中初吻的回憶

互換眼神的呼吸

樹下雍抱的情意

恍然地想起你


雨中同傘的天氣

交換軟糖的甜蜜

夕陽散步的美麗

想起便想起你


一百一千一千萬分

的柔情蜜憶

不停地回轉於我的記憶

一百一千一千萬分

的捨不得你

不停地教我不能夠放棄


路中吻別的回憶

互訢愛你的信息

十指緊扣的情意

教我無法忘記

一旦想起,不自禁想起你

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Shadow of the Cross

Near the end of the year 2008, I fidgeted in my plane seat, on my way home to the Philippines. And as I sorted through my hopes for the year to come, I realized that the only desire worth having would be to live with a constant awareness and assurance of Christ's redemptive sacrifice. I scribbled down these words as I went through the air...oh Lord, in every day to come, please keep me near the shadow of the cross!

Verse 1:
You are Lord of heaven,
Owner of all things,
Author of each harmony
Humankind can sing;
Yet you left Your heaven,
Came to die for me,
Paying all redemption that
I might be made free.

Pre-chorus:
Lord, You loved in such humility...
Help me now to be as You would be...

Chorus:
Keep me near the shadow of the cross,
Make my soul abandoned to its frame;
Help me count all gain to be as loss,
So I'd live to glorify Your name.

Verse 2:
I was born a sinner,
Living selfishly,
Proudly thinking I could own
Self-sufficiency;
Yet You loved this sinner,
And Your love bestowed
Grace that led my eyes to see
All that I now know.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Strength Each Day

In the midst of personal aspirations and external expectations, it can be easy to be disappointed about the results of our strivings. Yet with careful thought, one realizes that God is so much closer when we feel the need for Him moment after moment, day after day. God gave me this poem in the heat of college pressure, and it will continue to be my encouragement in days to come.

How often in our hearts we hope,
That we might shine in all we do,
Yet somehow, though we strive and grope,
He would not let our dreams come true.

For there are times we have the need

To know we've come to our end,
That we might learn to fully heed,
Our one and only, truest Friend.

His strength shall be our lasting aid,
His joy shall be our constant song,
And when 'fore Him our cares we've laid,
We've strength each day--however long.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Stay in the Castle

In a booklet entitled "Stay in the Castle," a Christian author writes of the importance of waiting upon God's timing for the perfect romance. It is an inspiring tale, and as our collegian (college girls' organization) staged this little story, I was moved to write this song. May every young lady truly learn to stay in the castle, trusting and waiting for our Father's perfect plans.

You dream about that special day,
When love will finally come;
You dream about how he would say
He loves you as his own.

That sparkle in your eyes
As they look beyond these walls,
Awaiting every sunrise,
But child, please realize…

That I have plans for you,
More than all your dreams-come-true,
And more than anything your heart
Will have you do.
However long it takes,
I will never make mistakes,
Stay in the castle
With Me.