There is a journey facing us all,
Some kind of passion, maybe a call.
Some never make it, some come apart,
Journeying from the head to the heart.
Community is so hard to teach,
Ev'n with so many well within reach.
True fellowship, though, is hard to find;
Is there no path between heart and mind?
Pity the mind so learned and trained,
Disciplined knowledge fully maintained,
Yet with no core, no link to the heart?
Knowledge for hire; the soul has no part.
Where is compassion, decency, joy?
What of reflection? Is this a ploy?
Does honesty live in such a mind
When to the heart's core there is no bind?
What do you know, beyond any doubt?
Is there a purpose you are about?
Is there an insight vital to you,
Something behind what you say and do?
There is a journey facing us all,
Journey that drives our passion and call.
Never grow weary, strong from the start,
Journeying from the head to the heart.
TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, May 2026, after the 2026 Sprunt Lectures, Union Presbyterian Seminary, Richmond, VA.
MUSIC: Tune ADELAIDE, George C. Stebbins, 1907.
This is probably not a general interest hymn. I wrote it after attending the aforementioned lectures given at my seminary alma mater by Dr. Gregory Ellison of Candler School of Theology, Emory University, which I attended in hope of getting some handle on the teaching and thinking of Howard Thurman. (My main conclusion is that there is no such as "getting a handle on" anything about Howard Thurman. But I digress.) As I am increasingly becoming aware, besides being written for worship or devotion or other things, at least some of the hymns I write are just about processing things I have seen and heard. This is one of those. If anybody else who was there finds it useful, here you are.
No comments:
Post a Comment