What once was gain

What once was gain, for Christ's own sake, I count it all as loss.

In knowing Jesus as my Lord, all else is hateful dross.

All gains I knew in life before, all status, every prize,

Are wasteful madness in my heart and on my tongue are lies.

 

In Christ is found my righteousness, not from decree or law,

But in true faith that comes from God and fills my heart with awe.

I long to know the power of him who over death did rise,  

Even if his suffering I must share; for Christ my spirit cries.

 

This goal, this hope is far away, but still I must press on,

Because my Lord has made me his until all time has flown.

Forgetting what has come before, toward what before me lies,

I press on toward God's holy call, in Christ my godly prize.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, March 2022, after Philippians 3:4b-14 (Lent 5C)

MUSIC: Tune RESIGNATION, USA folk melody, Lewis's Beauties of Harmony, 1828.

Written for the epistle reading again, here for Lent 5C (April 3, 2022). I clearly have a weakness for this tune; something about the melancholy shade it bears in my ears seems to resonate, and sometimes tempers texts that might otherwise turn a little bit more jaunty or proud than would be appropriate.