"Song Design", a poem...a reminder...a challenge

I wrote this poem in 1990, during our three years in Dallas -  longing for the day that we could come back home to Ecuador.  After you read it through we can chat a little bit about its implications.


                                               Song Design
                                    
       I tried to write a song for You,
       to make men clap and cry, "Encore!"                             
       but the hand-picked notes I carefully drew          
       didn't dance on the staff like they had before.

I tried to make the lyrics shout,
to make men want to listen more;
but the well-thought phrases I carved out
didn't glow in the dark like they had before.

                       
                      I said, "It's done", and looked it through;
                      only then did I wonder where You'd been.
                      When I tried to make this song for You,
                      had I written it backwards - just me, again?
   
                                      I looked up to your patient face   
                                      and all my tunes slid off the lines.                  

                                      Then your love set brave new words in place
                                      and your Heart poured its music out into mine.           

           Your Heart poured its music out into mine;
            now, that's how a song should be designed!

                                                             - Becky Rhon

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Although I did write more songs, this poem means a  lot more than that.  Every one of us has "songs" to write -  all the projects and plans and ministries and jobs and dreams and duties with which our lives are involved.  But sometimes we do them "backwards", don't we?  We start out with OUR criteria and then (usually when things aren't working out!) we remember to put God into the equation.

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men." (Col. 3:23)  "So...whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." (I Cor. 10:31)  This doesn't only refer to our projects, jobs, dreams, etc.  "Whatever" means just that.  Decisions and relationships and how we treat others, for example.  How do we make sure we're on the right track? God's Word gives us more than sufficient guidelines...but we have to read it!  (Osmosis won't work here!)

We can start in our homes. Wives, let's make our husbands glad they married us!  Husbands, make your wives feel precious and loved! The family is much too important to God for us to just "wing it". He tells us how to  do things His way because that's the only way guaranteed to work (and work "for the glory of God"), and to give us peace...and because He loves us so much that He refuses to leave us clueless!

Let's allow God to pour His Music out into our hearts and lives...so that it bathes us in its richness and flows out to touch those around us. 
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   God bless you!!  Meet me here next week.