Safely Through

Yesterday was one of those days. You know the kind. Frustrating. Aggravating. The kind of day when you don’t know whether to scream or cry. (Neither helped.) The kind of day when you just want to punch somebody. (I didn’t.) 

I had begun this post early yesterday morning. Before all the drama and frustration. (And, no, the drama and frustration had nothing to do with my husband, in case you might have been wondering.) Today has been a better day, but a busy one, so I’m just getting back to finishing what I started.

I have a collection of old hymnals on my bookshelf. Some newer, some older. Some well worn. Some I can remember singing from. Some were before my time. This recent acquisition is particularly special as it is the hymnal I remember from my childhood. We used the old Broadman Hymnal on Wednesday nights for prayer meeting downstairs, but this “New Baptist Hymnal” was upstairs in the Sanctuary. I didn’t check the date, but I think it was published in the 1940s, which made me chuckle a bit. Just as I chuckle over the much older “Modern Hymnal” I have on the shelf.

Music has changed a lot over my lifetime, just as it did over lifetimes before me. And just as was true in years past, some of today’s music will endure, and much of it won’t. But that isn’t my point today.

As I was looking through this hymnal, I came across this old hymn I remember from my childhood.

This is one of the hymns that “didn’t make the cut” into more recently published hymnals. Although this text from John Newton, a name you will recognize from Amazing Grace, and composer Lowell Mason (Nearer, My God, To Thee and My Faith Looks Up To Thee, to name just a couple), this less familiar hymn is still a good one. One worth remembering, even if it is seldom sung any more.

Particularly in these trying times, it’s good to pause and remember this text.

Safely through another week

God has brought us on our way;

Let us now His blessing seek,

Awaiting in His courts today.

As we face a new week, it is good to remember that it is God who brought us through the last one. And it is God who will carry us through this one.

As we think of the turmoil of the last week, it is good to remember that it is God who brought us through. And it is God who will carry us through the uncertainty if the days ahead.

 On the good days and the bad days. One the uncertain days and the frustrating days. On the up days and the down days and all the in between days, it is God who carries us through. Safely through God has brought us on our way. Every time. And He’ll do it again.

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear….” (Psalm 46:1-2 NASB)