A man convulsed and crying
was turning to and fro’,
but Jesus reached to meet him
to bid the spirit go.
The language of this story
sounds foreign, to our speech
yet still our health can test us,
when faith seems out of reach.
Great God, in Christ you show us
that love can cast out fear,
the fear that can assail us,
or those that we hold dear.
In times of desolation,
or times of deep distress.
mid loneliness bring friendship
bring love to lift and bless.
If hearts and thoughts are twisted,
when nothing is secure
may ones like Christ stay near us,
to show that love is sure,
to hold us through disturbance,
as we will hold them too
when shadows cloud your presence
we’ll see each other through.
Andrew Pratt 20/1/2024
Words © 2024 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England copyright@stainer.co.uk . Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd.
Metre: 7.6.7.6.D
Tune: CRUGER; PENLAN
Tag: health
This is the time of crisis
Things we know are never wholly certain,
we fathom and explore,
we test the tangled evidence
while seeking to decide.
This is the time of crisis,
of decision,
a time for making choices.
Life sometimes stutters,
moving on in stages.
At others it seems seldom interrupted.
Day to day passes without incident.
Then the cancer, infarction,
crippling us with indecision.
Death is inevitable since our birth.
But should we, as the poet wrote,
‘strive against the dying of the light’?
Or, windhover like, roll, riding on the steady air,
swing in mastery of this fluid existence?
Broken pinioned we may plummet,
God forbid.
But is it worth the struggle?
To claw heavenward,
perhaps survive,
at what present cost?
And all that now determines action will sound ephemeral,
of little consequence.
Such impulses drive the decisions we will make,
for life or death,
in love or grace.
© Andrew Pratt 30/11/2018
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