214 Days

Way back on Ash Wednesday, I wrote 42 words of a new hymn text idea I had. These 42 words formed one complete stanza and half of another stanza. Then a combination of lack of insight and busyness kept me from writing more.

Until yesterday.

Yesterday, I wrote 65 more words bring my total to 107 words, 4 stanzas, and 1 hymn.


In between was 214 days. I didn't put a word on paper for 214 days, but those 214 days were still productive in the writing process of the hymn.

Those 214 days included 30 weeks of playing 3-10 hymns each week for services, and singing others each week as well.

Those 214 days included oratio, meditatio, and tentatio (prayer, meditation [on God's Word], and trial) that, as Luther said, make a theologian.

Those 214 days included the living out of my vocation, and the bearing of the cross given therein.

At of the end of these 214 days, I have 107 words. But these are not my words, or at least I hope they are not. Because if they are my words, they aren't a hymn worth singing. I hope they are the Church's words, a hymn to join alongside the hymns of the the Church universal. The Church's words that speak of Christ, and so will never be silenced or pass away. The Church's words for which 214 days is but the start of eternity.

If I learn in days to come that these 107 words are mine and they need to be let go of, I will gladly wait as many spans of 214 days needed to learn the Church's words. Even if it means waiting until this life passes away and learning the hymn in eternity.

And while I wait, I will continue in oratio, meditatio, and tentatio and living out my vocation and carrying the cross therin; and I will sing the words of the Church and learn from them of Christ.