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stations:empty

July 5, 2009

Posted in: stations:awaken, the gathering

EMPTY

(listen/watch Be Thou My Vision)

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart

None is all else to me, save that you are

You’re my best thought by day or by night

Waking or sleeping, your presence, my light

Be thou my wisdom and thou my true word

I ever with you and you with me, Lord

You’re my great father and I’m your true son

You in me dwelling, and I with you one

Riches I need not, nor man’s empty praise

You’re my inheritance, now and always

You and you only, first in my heart

High King of heaven, my treasure you are

High King of heaven, my victory won

May I reach heaven’s joys, O bright heaven’s sun

Heart of my own heart, whatever befall

Still be my vision, O Ruler of all

* How do you feel as you listen to this song?

* Do you sense struggle?  Resolve? Or something other? 

* How does the verb ‘empty’ and this song find any connection to one another?

I was struck by the resolve and willingness to attribute the highest value to the King – praising God.  It wasn’t that the words are so unique – but that it exposed the duty and obligation I often feel toward God.  It exposed my all too often lack of intimacy and joy with the Father – and it ‘awoke’ me to the contrast of obligation – a life lived through intimacy and awareness.   Ron Martoia writes, ‘doing flows organically from a deep sensing that is a response to what is happing and arising around us.  This sort of doing flows from a deep self emptying modeled by Jesus . . . this is a self emptying doing, not a self filling accomplishment.’ 

Our prayer then becomes, ‘be my vision . . . and my greatest desire.’