I Pray These Things for You

The year 2008 has been a year of numerous comings and goings in my life. So many faces have come and gone. New/old friends, mentors and students, church crowds and long-time coworkers and dear relatives...including myself...all have been part of the cycle. It's all quite bittersweet, and my mind recalls this composition.

I wrote this song as a gift to my best friend when she and her family moved to California almost five years ago. Now, even while I wish the same things for the other coming/going people in my life...I try to hope that all my family and friends share this prayer too...

Verse 1:
I look at you one final time
Before I let you go,
The time to pass before we meet,
Only God can know.
How to face the things beyond this land
Not one of us know now,
But look to Christ, our Master,
He’ll be there to show you how.

Verse 2:
The changes that will happen
Within the years to come,
May bring you pain and hardship
Or jubilant song.
The years ahead lie blurry
Like a bend upon the road.
But today let’s join our hearts to thank
What God has since bestowed.

Chorus:
Faith will give you confidence
For every day in view,
Hope will give you promises
When things look grey and blue,
Love is greatest over all,
For it will see us through,
No matter what tomorrow brings,
I pray these things for you.

Dearest Rachel

Dear Rachel, it's your eighteenth birthday! I still remember talking about our eighteenth birthdays so long ago. Time has flown, and now mine has passed and yours is here. We could not have imagined our current circumstances, but God knows best. Happy birthday! :)

Dearest Rachel, dearest friend,
Times have truly flown;
Now your girlhood’s at an end,
Life and future loom unknown.

I don’t know what lies in store
In the years ahead,
If you’ll have your dreams and more,
Or have tearful pains instead.

I just know that on this day,
You are worthy of
The best wishes I can say:
“Have more faith, and hope, and love.”

Yes, I’m so repetitive
That I seem a bore;
But these lessons learnt and lived
Shall be blessings evermore.

May true faith from Jesus Christ
Help you to be strong;
Though a Christian be despised
In this world of human wrong.

May a burning hope in you
Carry through all pain;
Though some dreams may prove untrue,
In your heart He’ll always reign.

May a solid, Christian love
Never cease to grow
In your heart as in above,
Through each day He should bestow.

Dearest Rachel, dearest friend,
May these vitues three
Guide you, mold you till the end,
When God’s woman you shall be.