Journey From the Mind to the Heart

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. 

 

 

 

 

When they saw their Teacher lifted

When they saw their Teacher lifted far above all human sight,

Still they stood, still gazing upward, filled with wonder and with fright.

"Alleluia, alleluia" on their lips did not seem right.

 

Then two men were standing by them, robed in white; they asked them this:

"Why do you stand gazing upward? What do you think is amiss?

Alleluia, alleluia! Christ will come back just like this!"

 

So they turned and headed homeward to Jerusalem to stay;

In the upper room they gathered there to meditate and pray,

Alleluia, alleluia! Waiting, watching for that day.

 

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, May 2026, after Acts 1:9-14.

MUSIC: Suggested tune LAUDA ANIMA (Andrews), Mark Andrews, 1930.

                Given tune LAUDA ANIMA, John Goss, 1869.

 

 

 

I have written two hymn texts for Ascension, whatever day it might be observed. This one is Ascension-ish, but is more strictly from the reading for the seventh Sunday of Easter, year A. As for the suggested tune, it's one I like a lot and wish would be used more often, but the more common tune is given here. I will make a version to the Andrews tune as soon as I have time.