Saving, helping, keeping, loving

In addition to class, I must listen to lectures for my counseling class. And just we do in class, each lecture begins with a hymn, often times dealing with suffering, temptation, and the hardships of life. Today, I began a lecture on my drive home from work. The hymn they sang was Jesus, What a Friends for Sinners.

What a beautiful song about what Christ does graciously on behalf of His people!

Jesus! what a Friend for sinners!
Jesus! Lover of my soul;
Friends may fail me, foes assail me,
He, my Saviour, makes me whole.

Hallelujah! what a Saviour!
Hallelujah, what a Friend!
Saving, helping, keeping, loving,
He is with me to the end.

Jesus! what a strength in weakness!
Let me hide myself in him;
Tempted, tried, and sometimes failing,
He, my strength, my vict'ry wins.

Jesus! what a help in sorrow!
While the billows o'er me roll,
Even when my heart is breaking,
He, my comfort, helps my soul.

Jesus! what a guide and keeper!
While the tempest still is high,
Storms about me, night o'ertakes me,
He, my pilot, hears my cry.

Jesus! I do now receive him,
More than all in him I find,
He hath granted me forgiveness,
I am his, and he is mine.

the old or the new?

Over the past week, I have been pouring over Ecclesiastes 7:7-14. It is part of a class assignment, but not simply school oriented.

Surely oppression drives the wise into madness,
    and a bribe corrupts the heart.

Better is the end of a thing than its beginning,
    and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.

Be not quick in your spirit to become angry,
    for anger lodges in the heart of fools. 

 Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?”
    For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.

Wisdom is good with an inheritance,
    an advantage to those who see the sun.

For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money,
    and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.  

Consider the work of God:
    who can make straight what he has made crooked? 

 In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.

With graduation coming in May (Lord willing), the end of this particular stage of life is at hand. According to Solomon, this is a good thing. However, it also brings the temptation to become envious, either of what came before or what lies ahead. I find myself sitting in this very position.

On the one hand, I am envious of the consistency of life as it currently stands. While I am ready to leave behind the life of a graduate student, the schedule has been my way of life. The looming change will certainly disrupt everything I am accustomed to.

On the flip side, I am tempted to be envious now of what might be come this time next year. I want to be in full-time ministry. I want to take the wealth of knowledge I have gained into the church context. I grow impatient of the ivory tower condition common in higher education. 

Either way, the temptation toward envy sounds attractive, but it leads to a lack of joy and gratitude. Such an scenario is exhausting for myself and those around me.

I "bunkered" down with this particular passage because the it is primarily concerned with wisdom. Wisdom works against envy. It views envy as the destructive force that it is. Wisdom seeks the mind of God, and rejoices in the work He is presently doing.

I also appreciate this passage because of it's call for joy and trust regardless of the circumstance. Instead of relishing the days prior or holding high hopes for those to come, there is joy to be found in the present where our God is actively working.