Your Work Continues All the Same

One of the most dramatic chapters of my life is coming to an end. And as I settle down to college life soon, routine will come again. While I look forward to it all, I know that perseverance will be tested in routine life, and I know that God's hand might become humanly less easy to trace. Yet, just as in this poem that I wrote for my best friend a few months ago, I shall still have motivation to do my best. And as I tentatively part from this blog...this is my good wish for all my readers, no matter your duties comprise family, work, studies, church, or otherwise.

Each morn, each hour goes passing by,
Each word, each task, each smile, each sigh,
Each tiring deed, each daily need,
“Lord, is there more?” I cry.

A smiling face to greet the day,
A tender word a friend should say,
Still don’t remain; life stays the same,
“Lord, is there more?” I pray.

My duties day and night I do,
I stay obedient and true,
Yet there’s no fire, no keen desire
To draw more close to You.

Lord, help me trace Your loving hand,
Lord, help me hear Your voice’s command
Through each small thing each hour might bring
To make me understand

That though each day may lack the flame,
Your work continues all the same,
And I must strive, each day I live
To glorify Your name.

Help Me Keep Myself for Him

Mom and I have observed how the girl left un-partnered at the end of a story always has to go abroad. I can’t help but laugh that I must be that girl while the rest of my friends all pair up…but seriously, as I experience more intimacy with God, I find beauty, satisfaction, and reliance upon Him that knows no comparison.

I don’t know if God has prepared anyone for my future; He knows best and will reveal His plans in time. What I do know, however, is that nothing can be done without His enablement, and I pray that if there is such a person, may God help me faithfully guard myself henceforth for him, even when my distance from family and home church makes the challenge even harder. And as I understand more and more of God’s love, He will decide when, how, and whether or not to lead “me to him, and him to me.” How better a matchmaker could one ask for, right?

Help me keep myself for him,
Whoever he may be,
Though the chances may be slim
That he would ever see
How I battled on within
To live with purity,
So to save alone for him
The depths of love in me.

Help me guard myself today
From those who seek my heart,
Trying with the words they say
To earn if just a part
Of the love which, come the day,
Should have with him its start—
Sworn in covenant to stay
And never to depart.

Help me watch this heart of mine,
And all my words and deeds,
Help me walk the narrow line
That perseverance leads,
Have Your glory in me shine
When I find all I need
In Your love, so pure and fine,
The love my heart must heed.

And in this love that my heart needs,
And in this love that his heart needs,
Him to me, and me to him,
Your loving hand will lead.

Teach Me to Remember

I wrote these lyrics soon after I finished the book "Growing Up Christian." This book, written in particular for church-grown kids, challenged me to reevaluate my views on salvation. Have I become self-righteous? Have I taken my salvation for granted more often than not? In the end, I could only cry...Lord, teach me to remember. For a while, I could think of no tune suitable for the words that I felt so intensely about. Then finally, two weeks back, my cousin Theodore wrote the perfect music for it. Now, it is finally a song-prayer that can be sung.

Verse 1:
There are times when I forget
How my soul is long in debt
To the holiness which You, my God, demands
There are times when I retort
How I’ve failed and fallen short
Of the glory found in You and Your commands.

Pre-chorus:
Yet when in Your Word I see
All the wickedness in me,
Can’t help but plead Your mercy to remind me once again…
When in Your Word I see
All the wickedness in me,
Can’t help but plead Your mercy to remind me once again…

Chorus:
Lord, teach me to remember
The price You had to pay;
Lord, teach me to surrender
More of myself each day.
Please help me not forget,
Please help me not neglect
The grace You showed when on the cross You laid,
The miracle that I am Yours today.

Verse 2:
There are times when I would do
All the things You want me to
And imagine that I did it on my own;
There are times when I would live,
I would love, and I would give,
While forgetting all had come from You alone.