By: Jim Umlauf
One of my favorite hymns was written in 1850 by a woman named Anna Waring. In it, she uses an intriguing and strangely contemporary line. It’s a request of God for “a mind to blend with outward life while keeping at (his) side.” She realizes that we dwell in the world, but are not of it. It’s our home for this earthly life, but we are sojourners, and look forward to our true heavenly home.
Even Jesus, when praying for his current disciples and those who would one day become believers said, "I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one" (John 17:15).
This is the careful balance in which we must live. The temptation is to cloister one’s self and family from the world around us. Of course, with young children you do try to guard their little hearts and minds. But as we gain insight into the world, the goal isn’t to yank ourselves out of it. That’s not what Jesus did, nor what he commands us to do, and it’s just plain impossible. Neither is it spiritually healthy to become personally coarsened so that the sharp edges of holiness can no longer be felt.
Here’s something I read this morning; it’s full of helpful things to note about ourselves, and to ask of God as we strive to blend with the challenges of outward life, while at the same time, move through it near the Savior:
I am blind, be thou my light,Ignorant, be thou my wisdom,Self-willed, be thou my mind.Open my ear to grasp quickly thy Spirit’s voice,And run after his beckoning hand.Melt my conscience that no hardness remain,Make it alive to evil’s slightest touch.
When you get a quiet moment, pray that. When you get another, pray it again.
