Here's my heart lord...

I originally posted this on Someone On My Mind.

Friday morning, the day after Thanksgiving, I jumped to my computer with excitement. I had been waiting all year for this. Ever since the Christmas decorations were taken down and newness of the year was sinking in, I was waiting.

I opened my Pandora that was bookmarked on my computer. Pushed the button for my favorite Christmas station and waited to hear it.

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At age 17, Robert Robinson and some of his drinking buddies decided to attend an evangelistic meeting, with a plan to make fun of the proceedings. When the pastor began to preach, Robert felt as if the sermon was just for him. He did not respond to the altar call that night, but the words of the evangelist would haunt him for the next three years.

On Dec. 10, 1755, at age 20, Robert finally yielded his life to Christ, and very soon thereafter answered a call to the ministry. Three years later in 1757, as he was preparing to preach a sermon  Robert wrote Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing to complement his sermon.

The music for the hymn was composed by Asahel Nettleton in 1813.

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When I selected songs for our wedding, the thought of having Come Thou Fount played while we lit the unity candle was kind of an arbutrary decision. I had heard it a few times in church. I liked the melody. The words were pretty. It would sound great with the rustic feel we were going for.

Now, 2 and a half years later, it's hard to explain what this song does in our home.

It's not really a Christmas song and is probably only in the Christmas playlist because Sufjan Stevens added it to his holiday album.

But thinking about Christmas these days, I don't think about the tree or the food or even the presents.

This song is Christmas to me now.

The words are hauntingly beautiful and speak so much to how we should worship during this season. It speaks of singing the Lord's grace, never ceasing in our praise. It asks the Lords to teach us how to worship with tounges on fire.

 Even in our times of sorrow and confusion, the Lord seeks me.

Even though often run away from Him, Jesus was born to bring me home to our Father.

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Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

When this song comes on the radio, I stop. I stop typing, I stop working. I pause. Every time I hear this song all I can do is lay my head down and pray. To redevote my life and my heart to the Lord.

It's a love song to God.

During the next few weeks, as time seems to slip away, as the pressure of the season build up, it's so important for us to pause. To sit in the stillness of the love of the Lord and breathe it in. This is what this song does for Kyle and I. It is a true blessing and continues to fill us with the spirit of Christ and the true meaning of the holiday.

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I've come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.