hymns – Sheila Dougal

I learned the gospel from hymns

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Blogger and author Tim Challies asked this question on Twitter today:

If there was one song you had to sing at every Sunday morning service from now until the day you die, which would it be and why?

This evening Mr. Challies tweeted that hymns outpaced non-hymns 25 to 1 in the 250 plus responses he got to his question. My response was a hymn also: Great Is Thy Faithfulness.

Singing hymns growing up is one of the reasons I heard the gospel. I grew up in a church that doctrinally had it wrong. Their emphasis was on works, not faith in Christ as a gift of God’s grace. But despite the wrong teaching I heard from the pulpit, before each sermon I sang with my church from a book of hymns where I heard:

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
let me hide myself in thee;
let the water and the blood,
from thy wounded side which flowed,
be of sin the double cure,
save from wrath and make me pure.

(Augustus Montague Toplady, 1763)

And

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today, and bright hope for tomorrow
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside.

(Thomas Chisholm, 1923)

The seeds of the truth of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone were planted in my ears from toddlerhood.

Despite the depression and toxic atmosphere that so often permeated the home I grew up in, despite my parents divorce and sinfulness, the sound of my mom singing It Is Well With My Soul and the words she sang while tears poured from her brokenness pierced my angry teenage heart.

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so—it is well with my soul.

(Horatio G. Spafford, 1876)

And when I was lost and deep in darkness, trying to make a name for myself with The Cure and “mod” clothes as my motif, I found myself in a sea of youth singing Amazing Grace at a conference in Sacramento, California. And there the grace of God appeared to me.

Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!

(John Newton, 1779)

I am so grateful for the men and women who wrote the hymns of old. Their songs were used by God to awaken me to the beauty of Christ. What a treasure!

I think one’s feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into actions which bring results. – Florence Nightingale

(Florence Nightingale nurses)

I’m consistently inconsistent at writing here. I ran across this article the other day and felt like someone wrote an article about me. I really am an introverted person in the way this article describes introvertedness.

I don’t know how else to get back in the writing groove I dream of being in except to start writing. But each day fills up and pretty soon its 9pm and quiet and I’m lucky if I can pen a sentence worth reading.

The long drives to and from work provide ample time to pray, talk to myself and boil over with all kinds of notes and thoughts I could write out, but by the time I get home (or to work) they are lost in the fog that is my brain.

When you assess a patient as a nurse, you’re to do so from head to toe, systematically, so as to not miss anything important. Systematicness helps me a lot. But time pressures and the multiple to-do’s alarming in my head while I’m in the middle of the system, throws me off. Most of my shift I feel like I’m running around tripping over the bunch of reminder strings tied to my fingers. I’m convinced I’m not cut out for hospital nursing, but it’s good for me. For a year at least.

I’ll be 40 in May of 2014 and I think I’m just now figuring out what I want to be when I grow up. Do they call this a mid-life crisis? I’m NOT going to have one! But I do think there’s more of an awareness of what suits me and what I’m suited for looking back from 40. Nevertheless, sometimes you just have to do what needs to be done even if its not your “calling”.

I enjoy the teaching of nursing and the tasks (blood draws, IV starts, etc.). I enjoy the people, immensely. I love helping them! But I am drained and frazzled by the time pressures, high risks, critical staff and doctors, and necessary multi-tasking. I’m not an adrenaline junkie. I wonder what this means about me. It definitely means any success I have right now as a hospital nurse is evidence of the grace God supplies me each minute of each shift. I wonder what kind of nursing would put me to best use. Whatever it is, I truly do look up to the Lady of the Lamp as a role model nurse. Christ has put a heart in me to serve others, to care for them, to do what’s best. This governs my frazzled, easily-distracted and drained self every time I go to work. Florence was right, with Christ comes kindness to sick man, woman and child.

One of the things I like about working at this hospital is the diversity of the patient population. In the last 4 shifts I’ve worked I’ve cared for Syrian, Iraqi, Burmese, Thai, Swedish, Cuban and Hispanic moms, and more.

My mom used to sing hymns in the house. One of the hymns I grew up hearing is Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. It, along with It Is Well With My Soul, Amazing Grace, Farther On, and many others come to mind frequently. This song by Francesca Battistelli takes from the original Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus hymn. I like it!

Quieted,

Sheila

Let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to Thee

Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
mount of thy redeeming love.

Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I’m come; and
I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.

O to grace how great
a debtor daily I’m constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.

I post songs it seems when I’m struggling just to seek and do the will of God, much less talk or type about it. When I’m overwhelmed, singing praise to God is my rescue. I can’t change a thing, but I can sing His praises, cause He deserves them no matter what. Let me just sing His praises. Whatever the matter is, He’s good in every way and I’ll find rest in just singing to Him.

The lyrics to the old hymns have been on my heart alot lately. I repeat this song on my ipod all the time, especially to hear this part:

I picture HIS goodness like a fetter, this, binding my wandering heart to Jesus, and oh how I need His goodness to bind me to Him.

O to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.

Redeeming the time

I love this hymn

One of the things I want to do this year is put some of the old, inspired hymns to memory and sing them with my boys.

We’re begining the year with this one, Rock of Ages:

1. Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
let me hide myself in thee;
let the water and the blood,
from thy wounded side which flowed,
be of sin the double cure;
save from wrath and make me pure.

2. Not the labors of my hands
can fulfill thy law’s commands;
could my zeal no respite know,
could my tears forever flow,
all for sin could not atone;
thou must save, and thou alone.

3. Nothing in my hand I bring,
simply to the cross I cling;
naked, come to thee for dress;
helpless, look to thee for grace;
foul, I to the fountain fly;
wash me, Savior, or I die.

4. While I draw this fleeting breath,
when mine eyes shall close in death,
when I soar to worlds unknown,
see thee on thy judgment throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
let me hide myself in thee.

I LOVE all the lyrics to this song. It’s my heart’s cry and I cry almost everytime I sing it. But right now the part that really gets me is:

Not the labors of my hands
can fulfill thy law’s commands;
could my zeal no respite know,
could my tears forever flow,
all for sin could not atone;
thou must save, and thou alone.

No matter how much I work. No matter how zealous I am. No matter how much I cry. None of it can fulfill God’s law for me, or atone for my sin. Jesus must save and Him alone!!!

I’m hiding in Him this year… how about you!?

Redeeming the time

I surrender all

In light of the Elizabeth Elliot post, when this song came on my ipod just now as I was laundering the same clothes I’ve washed daily for months, I was illuminated. Putting those clothes in the washer I sang, “I will ever love and trust You Lord and in Your presence daily live.” It felt good just now, to put laundry in the washer. It really, truly felt good, cause I was seeing myself in the courts of my King, doing His laundry.

Redeeming the time