Today was a singing day in chapel, something that I really enjoy and wish were done more often. A song was led that I had never before heard, number 320 in Praise for the Lord: “If I Have Wounded Any Soul.” It is a song in the form of a prayer, and is asking for forgiveness of sins. The first two verses ask forgiveness for various sins that may have been committed unwittingly:
If I have wounded any soul today
If I have caused one foot to go astray,
If I have walked in my own willful way,
Dear Lord, forgive.
As I sang, reading the words and music and directing this prayer towards God, I was somewhat surprised when we came to verse three. The first line made sense, but at first I was puzzled by the second line until it was further explained by the third:
If I have been perverse or hard or cold,
If I have longed for shelter in Thy fold,
When Thou hast given me some fort to hold,
Dear Lord, forgive.
It is not inherently wrong to long for eternity with God, but I believe the song is speaking of those times that we become frustrated with our terrestrial existence and would rather forsake the spiritual work given to us and fly away home before it’s time.
Thinking about this makes me think of an analogy that could be made with finals week. Only one more week remains before school is out for Christmas break, but despite this it has been difficult for me to find motivation to study and work on my projects, since I am longing for it all to be over with already. Although it is unlikely in my case, it is possible that with that mindset, one could neglect their studies in the final weeks of the semester and end up with less-than-satisfactory grades because they spent too much time dreaming about the bliss of Christmas break.
Likewise, if we spend all our time here on earth daydreaming about how beautiful heaven must be, we may not even get there because we neglected to do those things that God has given us to do in order to attain our goal.
So, this is the thought for the day: Let’s get to work! Heaven will certainly be wonderful, and let’s be sure that we are servants and laborers on this earth so that we can enjoy that grandeur someday.